GIRLS BOOK 

OF THE 

RED CR05S 

MARYKENDALL HYDE 





Class. 



Book, 



m 



CPEffilGRT DEPOSIT. 




Underwood & Underwood 



EDITH CAVELL 



GIRLS' BOOK OF 
THE RED CROSS 



BY 

MARY KENDALL HYDE 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



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^-°A4 



COPTEIGHT, 1919, BT 

THOMAS Y, CROWELL COMPANY 



NOV -3 1919 



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5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

Thanks are due the several officials of the 
Red Cross who have helped pleasantly and gen- 
erously in the preparation of this book; to the 
editors of the Red Cross Magazine and other 
Red Cross publications for their courtesy; and 
to the many Red Cross workers from overseas 
who have contributed stories of actual experi- 
ences ; as well as to returned army men who have 
added their testimony from personal knowledge 
of the Red Cross. 

M. K. H. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I ' PACE 

The Meaning of the Cross of Red . . . 1-30 

The Battle of Solferino i, Jean Henri Dunant 2, The 
Geneva Convention 5, Need for the Red Cross 6, Florence 
Nightingale 10, Dorothea Lynde Dix 16, Clara Barton 20, 
Structure of the Red Cross 26. 

CHAPTER H 
The Red Cross in Time of Peace .... 31-76 

Fires 33, Floods 40, Tornadoes 49, Accidents on the 
Water 53, Pestilence 55, Famine 56, First War Work 60, 
Relief Work Abroad 63, " First Aid " 65, Work Among 
Miners 67, Among Railroad Workers 68, Among Lumber- 
Jacks 69, Among Police and Firemen 70, Among Electrical 
Workers 71, Among Seamen 71, Among Life-Savers 72, 
Health Work 72, Tuberculosis 74. 

CHAPTER HI 
The Call to Greater Service 77-146 

Hospital Supplies 79, The Red Cross in Foreign Lands 83, 
Increase in Membership and Funds 85, Appointment of a 
War Council 87, The First Red Cross Drive 89, New 
Administrative Methods 92, Spirit of Helpfulness Awak- 
ened 95, The Woman's Bureau 99, Red Cross Statistics 104, 
Grandmother's Medal 106, Comfort Kits 108, The Junior 
Red Cross io8. Social Service of the Junior Auxiliary 
117, Civilian Relief Abroad 121, War Relief in Belgium 
130, The American Red Cross in Italy 132, Relief Work 
in Russia 135, Work in England 137, In Switzerland 139, 
Work in Serbia and other Balkan Countries 142, The 
American Red Cross in Palestine 145. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 
The Red Cross at Home 147-197 

Information Department 149, Home Service Section 149, 
Eleanor and Eugene 155, Sue and Sam 155, Adele 157, 
Mildred 159, Girl Brides 160, Helen and Paul 161, Louise 
164, Rosie and Dave 166, Boy Scouts 171, Girl Scouts 
and Camp Fire Girls 173, Camp Service 174, Communica- 
tion Service 178, Sanitary Service 179, Canteen Service 
179, The War Brides 186, Home Service After the Armis- 
tice 187, Nursing Service 195. 

CHAPTER V 
Behind the Firing Line 198-259 

The Ambulance Man 198, The Ambulance Woman 201, 
The Ambulance Service 205, Hospital Units 210, The 
Hospital Orderly 213, The Stretcher-Bearer 214, Red Cross 
Dogs 217, Hospital Trains 224, Hospital Ships 225, Rest 
and Refreshment Canteens in France 228, Rolling Canteens 
and Street Kitchens 245, Red Cross Soap 247, Care of 
Refugees 248, Mechanical Transport Corps 256. 

CHAPTER VI 

" The Greatest Mother in the World " . 260-339 

The Care Committee 267, Voluntary Aid Detachments 
267, The American Nurse 269, Miss Jane A. Delano 275, 
Nurses' Work and Risk 282, Bureau of Communication 289, 
Reconstruction of the Injured 296, Mothering of Soldiers 
on Leave 297, Mothering War Orphans 304, A Faithful 
Friend 315, Care of Rapatries 315, Festival Occasions 323, 
A Tribute to Women 337, Miss Boardman's Forecast 337. 

CHAPTER VII 
The Future of the Red Cross .... 340-375 

Modern Health Crusade 353, American Women's Hos- 
pitals Organization 355, Medical-Social Service Workers 
357, A Program of Preparedness 358, First Aid Work and 
the Junior Red Cross 359, Red Cross Animals 369, The 
Great Work Ahead 373. 



Janet has a curious ivory ornament on her book- 
case. It is a ball, about the size of a hen's egg, 
cleverly carved and containing within its perforated 
shell several other balls of decreasing sizes, each 
carved sphere perfect in itself and revolving freely 
by itself, yet each securely held inside the larger sur- 
rounding balls. 

Perhaps you have one of these curious ivory orna- 
ments in your home, or perhaps you have seen one in 
some art museum, and if so you doubtless have won- 
dered, as Janet does repeatedly, how those clever 
Chinese carvers fashion such marvels. 

Janet's bedroom has a broad, deep bay window 
from which a great stretch of sky can be seen. 
Janet never tires of studying the stars, and almost 
every clear night she searches out her favorite con- 
stellations. But the steady Pole Star is always in 
the same place. 

Perhaps you too can name the constellations and 
find the Pole Star, and perhaps you sometimes won- 
der, as Janet does, why the heavenly bodies always 
look just so and how it is they all keep together in 
just such arrangement and never lose their place in 
the sky or their relation to the Pole Star. 

Janet joined an organization not long ago, and it 
reminds her of the ivory balls, each revolving in- 



dependently, yet all hound in one; and the more she 
learns of the working-plan of the organization, the 
more she is reminded of the constellations and the 
Pole Star. Her branch of the Red Cross, she says, 
might he likened to one tiny star in a great constella- 
tion, the division to which her chapter helongs, to 
the constellation, and the Central Committee in 
Washington, to the steady Pole Star. 

From her window Janet looks hy day into the 
green depths of a swaying hemlock tree. How the 
branches sway when even the gentlest breeze blows! 
And when the wind is high, the limbs bend and bow, 
but never break. While through all kinds of 
weather, stands stif and straight and unbending the 
stout, thick trunk of the tree! 

And sometimes as Janet gazes into the green 
depths of the swaying branches, she is again re- 
minded of her Red Cross Auxiliary. For she says 
the trunk of the tree is like the Central Committee 
in Washington; the strong limbs are like the great 
divisions; the long boughs spreading in all directions 
may be likened to the chapters; the swaying branches 
extending away out over the lawn and the clif are 
the busy Red Cross branches; and the twigs are the 
auxiliaries! Janet laughs when she gets as far as 
this! and rejoices to think that even the Junior Aux- 
iliary to which she belongs is, like the tiniest twig of 
the big hemlock, really a part of the great whole and 
firmly attached to the stout tree trunk in Washington. 



GIRLS' BOOK 
OF THE RED CROSS 

CHAPTER I 

The Meaning of the Cross of Red 

"Oh, no, no, no. Monsieur, we could not do 
that!" "We should be afraid!" "We should 
not know what to do — " "Nor how — " "Oh, 
no, no, no. Monsieur!" 

So babbled a group of sobbing peasant women 
gathered about a young man of gentle but deter- 
mined manner, pleasant and kindly yet firm and 
commanding. Terrified by the sounds of battle, 
grieving over the sad tidings from the field 
beyond, these women were overwhelmed with 
despair and dismay. 

A young girl pressed forward. "But was it 
not Monsieur himself who brought home to us 
in his own carriage our Louis? And have we 
not seen him day after day going back and forth 
to the battlefield? Can we not do our share?" 

The battle of Solferino was ended. The blue 
skies of sunny Italy smiled down on one of the 



2 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

bloodiest battlefields the world's history had 
ever then known. Italy had won her independ- 
ence, Victor Emmanuel had gained his kingship, 
but thousands of Italy's fair young sons lay 
wounded and dying, and still other thousands 
of France and Austria lay dead or disabled. 
It was in June, 1859, and the French had once 
more helped the Italians to throw off the yoke 
of Austria, even as they had before in 1796 on 
the very same field of Solferino.^ To com- 
memorate this second battle there stands upon 
its field the picturesque Tower of Martino, com- 
manding a splendid view and containing a mili- 
tary museum ; but the most worthy and effec- 
tive memorial is the world-wide organization 
of the Red Cross which resulted from the effect 
of the sight of this battlefield on a tender-hearted 
and high-spirited young Swiss. 

JEAN HENRI DUNANT 

There was living in Geneva at that time an 
author and philanthropist, by name Jean Henri 
Dunant, who devoted his time and his fortune 
to various kinds of charitable work in his native 
city. While visiting Solferino, he was im- 

iSolferino: From the first battle, a certain shade of blue was 
designated by the name "solferino" and was popular for many 
years, though now forgotten, unlike its companion "magenta," 
which gained its name from a battle fought three weeks earlier 
in the same campaign. 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 3 

pressed with the lack of aid for those who had 
fallen in battle. There were not enough 
doctors to care for such vast numbers, and the 
wounded lay where they fell, without attention 
or proper surgical care, or painfully crawled to 
shelter, while the dead on all sides remained un- 
buried. He wrote: "The battlefield is every- 
where covered with bodies of men and horses; 
the highways, the ditches, the ravines, thickets, 
and meadows are sown with dead bodies, and 
the environs of Solferino are literally heaped 
with them." 

Dunant volunteered his services and did what 
he could in the work of relief. He secured 
authority to use the churches and other public 
buildings of a near-by town as emergency hospi- 
tals; he organized the peasant women (whose 
fears and reluctance he overcame) to act as 
nurses; he enlisted the aid of the young girls, 
whose kindliness and attention "raised a little 
the courage and the morale of the sick," and of 
boys, who brought water to stay the thirst or 
moisten the bandages of the wounded; he pro- 
vided all sorts of supplies at his own expense, 
bandages, medicine, food, and even delicacies 
in the way of fruit and other dainty things to 
tempt the appetite of the convalescing heroes. 
Nor did he forget "smokes" for the invalids. 
Dressed always in immaculate white, he went 



4 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

about among the cots, cheering and comforting 
the wounded men, ministering to their needs, 
and writing letters to their homes. The men 
adored him and spoke of him lovingly as ''The 
Gentleman in White." 

The memory of this frightful experience fol- 
lowed him to his home. He could not rest for 
thinking of the needless suffering of men 
wounded on the battlefield. At length there 
came to him the idea of founding in every 
country societies of mercy and help for soldiers 
in war. Recollections of the Crimean War and 
the wonderful work of Florence Nightingale, 
which had awakened a responsive chord of 
sympathy in Dunant's heart and brain, inspired 
him with the thought of an international organi- 
zation, all nations working together for relief in 
time of war and furthermore cherishing a pur- 
pose to prepare in time of peace for the activi- 
ties needed in war. 

Dunant wrote a book describing the horrors 
of Solferino and suggesting how lives might 
have been saved and suffering lessened if nurses 
and sufficient numbers of doctors had been at 
hand. He went before the Society of Public 
Utility in Geneva and delivered lectures advo- 
cating plans for relief in war times. He visited 
many European countries and interested in- 
fluential persons in his plans. So persistent and 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 5 

persuasive was M. Dunant that a great meet- 
ing was held in February, 1863, and the whole 
matter was laid before the Society. Commit- 
tees were appointed to examine into methods 
and to anticipate obstacles. In the following 
October, representatives from many other 
countries were invited to attend a conference 
which lasted four days, adjourning until the 
calling together of the Geneva Convention in 
1864, which resulted in the establishment of a 
permanent committee for international work.^ 
Ten different governments agreed to cooperate, 
and in this way the Red Cross was officially 
established, August 22, 1864. 

THE GENEVA CONVENTION 

Under the terms of this Convention, each na- 
tion pledged itself to work with other nations 
in caring for the sick and wounded of all 
countries alike and never to fire on a doctor, 
nurse, or ambulance that bore the sign of the 

1 Geneva is the largest and wealthiest city of Switzerland. It 
lies on both sides of the Rhone, at the foot of Lake Leman and 
in the shadow of Mont Blanc. The city has a remarkable history 
and has held a prominent place on the map since the first century 
B. c. The Huguenots originated in Geneva, and it was for a long 
time the home of Calvin and the center of Protestant education. 
Many congresses have been held there, including the famous Peace 
Congress of 1867, and of the Alabama Commission in 1871-72. 
At the conclusion of the World War in 1919, Geneva once again 
comes into prominence as headquarters for the new League of 
Nations and for the League of the Red Cross. 



6 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Red Cross. There were many other provisions, 
but those two were the most important. The 
Convention adopted the emblem of the Swiss 
banner with the colors reversed, as a tribute 
to the nation which called them together. 
Thus, the Swiss national banner is a white cross 
on a red field, and the banner of our organiza- 
tion, the Red Cross, is a red cross on a white 
field. The two words "Humanity" and "Neu- 
trality" were used as watchwords of the Red 
Cross; to care for those who need it, regard- 
less of race or creed, is the aim of the Red 
Cross.^ 

NEED FOR THE RED CROSS 

Much of our ancient history is a record of 
wars. Long accounts are given of military 
preparations, of equipments of shields, helmets, 
bows, and slings; but no mention is made of any 
relief of or provision for the sick or disabled; 
never is there any mention of nurses minister- 
ing to the warriors. 

The history of Egypt shows that the State 
employed physicians, paying them from the 

1 The old prejudice against the cross, born of the days of the 
Crusades, made Turkey unwilling to accept this emblem as the in- 
signia both of its army medical service and its volunteer relief 
society. With the other signatory powers of the Treaty of 
Geneva, Turkey adopted as her symbol the Red Crescent, at the 
same time promising to respect the protection of the Red Cross. 
The Red Crescent Society was organized in 1877. 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 7 

public treasury, and the Egyptian soldiers were 
cared for free of charge. Homer and Plato 
were so impressed with the science and skill of 
Egyptians that they declared the Egyptians were 
all doctors. 

When surgeons were employed on the battle- 
field in the earliest times, it seems probable 
that they were selected from the warriors. 
Homer wrote of "the wise physician skilled our 
wounds to heal, who is more than armies to the 
public weal." In the "Retreat of the Ten 
Thousand," written after the Battle of Cunaxa, 
about 400 B. C, Xenophon says he appointed 
eight doctors because there were so many 
wounded. The statement implies that the 
doctors were selected from the soldiers. When 
Alexander the Great went on his march of con- 
quest, he was accompanied by the most distin- 
guished physicians of the day; one of these ex- 
tracted an arrow from the king's shoulder and 
cured him of the dangerous fever which fol- 
lowed, and another cut the barbed head of a 
javelin from the conqueror's breast. 

The idea of humane treatment of wounded 
soldiers was known even in the sixth century 
B. c. We read that Cyrus the Great ordered 
his surgeons to attend his wounded prisoners. 
Alexander Severus (third century A. D.) visited 
the sick in their tents. No mention is made of 



8 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

hospitals, but it grew to be the custom among 
the Roman generals to have the wounded dis- 
tributed among the houses of the patricians. 
Tacitus tells us that during the reign of Ti- 
berius (at the beginning of the present era) by 
the falling of an amphitheater fifty thousand 
spectators were killed or injured, and that they 
were taken to the houses of the citizens "ac- 
cording to the customs of the ancients, who main- 
tained those wounded in war by their contribu- 
tions and care." In an essay on the construc- 
tion of camps, a writer of the second century 
B. C, who lived under the Emperors Trajan and 
Hadrian, assigns a place to the hospital or 
"valetudinarium." 

It is less than three centuries since official 
sanitary service, the foundation of the present 
military medical service, begins to be recorded. 
Except for the deeds of the Hospitaller Knights 
during the wars of the Crusades, no mention 
is made of humanitarian service during the 
Middle Ages.^ Those knights of old, on whose 
breasts gleamed the Cross, really practiced the 
motto of the Red Cross, "Humanity" and 
"Neutrality," for although they were fighting 
for the Holy Land, they ministered to the sick 
and wounded Moslems as well as to the 
Christians. In the course of their wanderings, 

1 Address by Clara Barton. 




t» 1 M| . I i ^ * 4^ - 



lart jirti i 



.■» « 




MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 9 

wherever they were established they set up 
hospitals and ministered to all needing care. 
It has been said of them, *'Not their riches nor 
their power nor their military prowess have 
given them their distinctive place in history, but 
their deeds of mercy to the sick and wounded." 
There was also a woman's branch of the Hos- 
pitallers stationed in Jerusalem, with Agnes, a 
noble Roman matron, at the head. 

Another noble woman who considered the ills 
of the wounded was Queen Isabella of Spain, 
who "during the siege of Granada had six great 
tents with beds set up, and called upon surgeons 
and physicians to attend the sick and wounded. 
The soldiers of Aragon and Castile gave to the 
establishment — perhaps the first of its kind — the 
name 'Queen's Hospital.' When the strict 
Castilian courtiers questioned the propriety of 
her visiting the hospital in person, she is said to 
have replied : 'Let me go to them, for they have 
no mothers here, and it will soothe them in their 
pain and weakness to find that they are not un- 
cared for.' " ^ 

Save for a few individual instances like those 
cited above, the only nursing done by women 
in time of war was by the sisters of religious 

1 Boardman, Mabel T. "Under the Red Cross Flag." J. B. Lip- 
pincott Company, 1915. 



lo GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

bodies, when battles were fought near a con- 
vent or a town where there were sisterhoods. 
Not until 1 8 13 is record found of women or- 
ganized for relief work ministering to friend 
and foe alike. In 1847 another society was 
formed, for the transport of soldiers seriously 
wounded. Then came the Crimean War and 
Florence Nightingale. 

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 

In the very same year of the battle of Solferino, 
1859, began the Crimean War, in which Eng- 
land, France, Sardinia (now a part of Italy, but 
then a separate kingdom), and Turkey united 
in war upon Russia. The fleets of the allies 
gathered in the Black Sea, surrounded the penin- 
sula of the Crimea, and landed their armies. 
For a year and a half the war lasted, and thou- 
sands of sick and wounded soldiers were dying 
for want of care. Great hospitals were built, 
after the fashion of barracks, gloomy, bare, cold, 
and dirty, and with men only in charge of all the 
departments. Men did the cooking — such as 
it was — men gave medicine to the patients, no 
one did much washing or cleaning, and no one 
let in fresh air for the sufferers to breathe. 
There were no nurses on the battlefields or in the 
hospitals. Wounded men were brought in just 
as they had fallen on the field; brought often- 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED ii 

times on the shoulders of their more fortunate 
comrades — for there were no ambulances in 
those days. The only care they received was 
from the male "orderlies," who were wholly 
untrained for such a task. At least, this was the 
condition except for the French army, where 
Sisters of Mercy tended the wounded, sick, and 
dying in their hospitals. 

When reports of this distressing condition 
reached England, there was an immediate re- 
sponse from Miss Florence Nightingale, a 
young lady who belonged to a wealthy family 
and who lived in a beautiful home. She was 
what might be called a born nurse. As a little 
girl she was continually doctoring everything 
she owned. Her dolls never knew what to 
expect from day to day, as they rarely were al- 
lowed to enjoy normal health. Scarlet fever, 
measles, mumps, whooping cough, sprained 
ankles or wrists, all illnesses or accidents likely 
to befall any child, the poor dolls suffered, and 
Florence dosed or bandaged the victims back to 
health, to have them fall ill again at once. 
Their only days of respite came when some of 
her sister's dolls broke a leg or a neck or began 
to leak sawdust. 

All the animals on the estate came under the 
care of Florence's skillful hands, and kittens, 
dogs, birds, and horses were petted and caressed 



12 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

when well and doctored and comforted when 111 
or in trouble. The story of her treatment and 
cure of a neighboring shepherd's dog has be- 
come almost a classic. One day when Florence 
and her friend, the vicar, were out horseback 
riding, they came upon an old shepherd calling 
his flock together. In reply to their question 
as to why his dog was not driving the sheep 
as usual, the old man told them that some boys 
had thrown stones at the poor dog and had 
broken his leg, and that there was nothing to do 
now but end the animal's life and put him out 
of misery. Florence's sympathy was aroused, 
and she insisted on visiting the lame dog at once. 
With the advice of the vicar, she bathed the 
sprained leg (it was not really broken) and 
bound a hot compress about it. Every day she 
visited her patient until he was able to dance 
about her when she came in sight, and to round 
up his master's flock. 

As Florence grew to young ladyhood, she be- 
came a regular visitor to the sick or sorrowing 
in her village, unconsciously training herself 
for what was to be her life work. Then came 
the time when she began to wonder what was 
ahead of her, what broader field of usefulness 
she might enter, how she might employ her 
talent and desire for the widest service. She 
visited the hospitals of Great Britain and was 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 13 

dismayed at the conditions. No trained nurses 
to care for the sick, but only coarse, ignorant 
women, who were often cruel and frequently in- 
temperate.^ Miss Nightingale made up her 
mind that here was where her mission lay, and 
she decided to become a nurse, in order to make 
just such places clean and wholesome for the 
sick. On visiting the Continent, she found a 
better state of things, and eventually spent a 
considerable time there studying and training 
for her chosen profession. On her return to 
London she took charge of Harley Street Hospi- 
tal. Soon after, the Crimean War broke out. 
There was terrible mismanagement in the 
military hospitals. Supplies were lacking; two 
thousand wounded men at Scutari were lying for 
days in mud and filth, just as they had been 
brought in from the battlefield; sick men were 
packed together in hordes, sometimes on the bare 
floor; the place — it could hardly be called a 
hospital — was alive with rats and vermin ; there 

1 The word "nurse" was limited in its application to those who 
cared for the young, until late in the sixteenth century. Shake- 
speare (1590) uses the word in the "Comedy of Errors," describ- 
ing a wife who claims it as her duty to nurse her husband: 

"I will attend my husband, be his nurse. 
Diet his sickness, for it is my ofRce." 

In 1784, Cowper wrote, "The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to nurse 
the sick," and another writer (1843) relates the story of a young 
man who flung himself out the window while his nurse was 
asleep. 



14 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

was neither soap nor towels, and only one kind 
of food, Irish stew, for men so ill that they 
should have had the most careful nursing and 
delicate food. Into this scene of misery and 
squalor came Florence Nightingale, called by 
the British Government to be the first woman 
nurse to enter a British military hospital. She 
came with a group of women from her hospital 
and seemed a real angel of mercy to those sick 
and dying men. The dirt was cleaned away; 
the men were bathed and given fresh clothing; 
new temporary buildings were built; good food 
was served the men; letters home were written 
for them; and the number of those who recov- 
ered from their wounds was increased greatly. 
The story has often been told that at the con- 
clusion of each day, after every one in the great 
hospital had become quiet for the night, Miss 
Nightingale made a personal tour of inspection 
through the wards. For those men in direst 
distress she had a word of loving encourage- 
ment or a gentle pat of reassurance. Each night 
the invalids watched for her coming, and the 
story goes that as she flitted by with a lamp 
held high in her hand, the soldiers would turn 
and kiss her shadow as it fell on the wall when 
she passed their beds. It was from this that 
she won the name of "The Lady with the 
Lamp." Henry W. Longfellow wrote a poem 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 15 

about her, which he called "Santa Filomena," 
and after picturing the "great army of the dead," 
the "trenches cold and damp," the "wounded 
from the battle plain in dreary hospitals of 
pain," he says: 

Lo! in the house of misery 
A lady with a lamp I see 

Pass through the glimmering gloom, 

And flit from room to room. 

And slow, as in a dream of bliss, 
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss 

Her shadow, as it falls 

Upon the darkening walls. 

On England's annals, through the long 
Hereafter of her speech and song, 

That light its rays shall cast 

From portals of the past. 

A Lady with a Lamp shall stand 
In the great history of the land, 

A noble type of good, 

Heroic womanhood. 

In recognition of Miss Nightingale's services 
the people of England raised a large sum of 
money as a testimonial of their love and grati- 
tude, which at her request was devoted to the 
extension of hospital work in London and to 
the founding of the first hospital training school 



i6 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

for girls. This brought about one of the great- 
est benefits to mankind of modern times, the 
''trained" nurse, educated, methodical, clear 
eyed and clear headed. It was, then, Florence 
Nightingale who founded nursing as a profes- 
sion for women and her name is dear to every 
soldier and sailor. 

DOROTHEA LYNDE DIX 

Over the main portal of Memorial Hall, at 
Harvard University, there hung for many years 
two beautiful flags, the United States colors, be- 
queathed to the college by Dorothea Dix, for 
whom they were made and to whom they were 
presented by the government in recognition of 
her services during the Civil War. In time the 
colors faded and were replaced by newer and 
fresher flags. So, perhaps, has the name of the 
donor faded somewhat and grown dim with 
years; to girls of the present generation, the 
name of Dorothea Dix is not so familiar as it 
was to the girls of two or three generations ago. 
However, her name will never fade from the 
annals of her country, but will continue to shine 
as a bright golden star. 

As Florence Nightingale was "Lady-in- 
Chief" of the British hospitals in Scutari and 
Balaklava during the Crimean War, so was 
Dorothea Dix appointed to be "Superintendent 




© Underwood & Underwood 



FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 17 

of Women Nurses" during the Civil War in the 
United States, with power "to select and assign 
women nurses to general or permanent military 
hospitals, they not to be employed in such hospi- 
tals without her sanction and approval, except 
in cases of urgent need." 

Miss Dix was not, like Miss Nightingale, a 
nurse; indeed, the two women were unlike in 
most respects except for a keen eye to detect 
suffering, a sympathetic heart for all sufferers, 
and a clear brain and steady hand to devise and 
carry out ways to relieve those in physical or 
mental distress. 

Dorothea Dix was not born to wealth and deli- 
cate surroundings, nor to sheltering love and 
protecting care. She was brought up in all the 
strictness of New England Puritanism, and 
grew to be a very lonely but self-reliant and 
efficient girl. By the time she was fourteen 
years old Dorothea began to earn money. She 
put on long skirts, made her waists after the style 
of older women, and taught school. Troubled 
by the condition of some poor neglected children 
who were too badly off to attend school, the 
young girl begged the use of a loft in her grand- 
mother's barn for "a schoolroom for social and 
religious purposes." This little barn-loft school 
developed into a mission and proved to be the 
beginning of a new ideal for dealing with 



i8 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

children. Later on, Miss Dix conducted a 
boarding school in Boston for young ladies, 
always maintaining a charity school in addition 
for worthy girls who could not pay for an edu- 
cation. 

Miss Dix was nearly forty years old before 
she found that her life work was not to be teach- 
ing. One day she was asked to take charge of 
a Sunday School class held for the women in a 
jail not far from her home. After the Sunday 
School was over, she visited the jail and was 
especially impressed by the condition of a few 
insane persons among the prisoners. She soon 
began a thorough, systematic investigation of 
the methods of caring for this class of patients. 
There were in the whole United States at that 
time only seven asylums for the insane, who for 
the most part were sent to prisons or almshouses, 
where they suffered shamefully from neglect and 
abuse. From that time throughout the next 
forty years. Miss Dix spent her time going up 
and down the land and across the sea to England 
and the Continent, pleading for the erection of 
separate hospitals for the insane and for kindly 
treatment of these peculiarly unfortunate and 
helpless subjects. The nature of her work was 
so appealing and its results so widely ap- 
preciated, that in fifteen years she received 
public testimonials from twenty state legisla- 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 19 

tures, from the Federal Congress of the United 
States, and from the British Parliament. 

Although not a nurse herself, no one studied 
the requirements for successful nursing more 
thoroughly than Dorothea Dix. Nowhere is 
there greater need of wisdom in the selection of 
officials than in an insane asylum, and for years 
Miss Dix appointed, rejected, advised, observed, 
and corrected officials and methods in hospitals 
all over the land. With the outbreak of the 
Civil War, women nurses volunteered by the 
thousands. Many of them were totally inex- 
perienced and unfitted for such duty. There 
was no Red Cross to pass on their qualifications, 
to train them, or to decide where they were most 
needed. Who could better be called to this 
position than Miss Dix? 

Upon her appointment she found, even as 
Florence Nightingale had found at Scutari, 
lack of organization and discipline, incompe- 
tence, indifference, and sometimes inhumanity. 
She straightway began in her fearless way to 
ferret out abuses, remedy evils, and relieve 
misery. Again like Florence Nightingale, the 
warm-hearted, clear-headed woman, while 
adored by the sick and wounded soldiers whose 
champion she was, came to be feared and 
dreaded by all incompetent, neglectful, or high- 
handed officials. Through four long years she 



20 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

worked, never taking a day's furlough, inspect- 
ing hospitals, organizing bands of nurses, for- 
warding supplies. The rigid training she had 
received in childhood was of great value. She 
held doctors, surgeons, nurses, all who were con- 
cerned in saving life or in lessening suffering, to 
the strictest account, and did much to raise the 
standard in all those professions. 

CLARA BARTON 

At the outbreak of the Civil War in the 
United States, among the many women who at 
once volunteered for hospital service, was 
Clara Barton, a young woman then employed 
as a clerk in the Patent Office in Washington; 
indeed, she was the first woman ever appointed 
independently to a clerkship in that department 
and probably the first woman to enter any pub- 
lic office in Washington in her own name and 
drawing a salary over her own signature. 

Miss Barton had not, like Florence Nightin- 
gale, been a daughter of luxury. Neither had 
she, like Dorothea Dix, grown up almost un- 
loved in a family struggling with poverty and 
misfortune, Clara Barton was the youngest 
child in a wholesome New England family of 
ordinary means, brought up to habits of thrift, 
taught to read and study and sew and cook, al- 
lowed to play and to roam about the fields with 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 21 

her older brother. She was not allowed to play 
with dolls, but found her recreation in work- 
ing in the garden and among the flowers, and in 
caring for the pets of the farm. Her fond- 
ness for riding mettlesome horses brought 
her hard experiences that prepared her for 
many a horseback flight across the battle- 
fields in later years. Another art learned 
in girlhood, that of milking the cows, aided 
her when during the war food failed and 
she went '^foraging." Companionship with her 
brother was one of the features of her early life 
which prepared her for her many years of work 
among soldiers and for the hardships and ad- 
ventures of the battlefield. 

Clara Barton was not, like Florence Nightin- 
gale, "a born nurse," but she seemed to develop 
what her New England neighbors would call 
''a leaning that way." The only actual experi- 
ence she had in the way of training was when, 
at the age of eleven, she entered upon two years 
of constant care as a nurse to her brother, that 
same older brother with whom she had romped 
and in whose company she had ridden bareback 
the wild young colts on the farm. 

She had, however, been brought up in an at- 
mosphere of intense patriotism. Her father 
had fought in the French and Indian wars and 
on the western frontier, and was fond of telling 



22 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

his adventures to Clara when she was a little 
girl. The children of the family used to play 
soldiers — as boys and girls do to-day, only there 
were no dainty little Red Cross nurses in their 
games — and the father supervised the battles. 
Even when she was very little, Clara was thor- 
oughly informed in military matters and eti- 
quette and as to the rank of sergeants, captains, 
colonels, and generals, and the difference be- 
tween infantry and cavalry. She knew also 
the names of the leading officers of the gov- 
ernment, from the President and his Cabinet 
all through the list. No wonder she was 
ready to start for the real battlefield when 
the first gun was fired! Like Dorothea Dix, 
Clara Barton took up school teaching as a career 
when hardly more than a child herself. She 
was fifteen years old, one year older than Doro- 
thea, when she "put down her skirts and put up 
her hair" and assumed the role of schoolmis- 
tress, a profession she followed for eighteen 
years. 

At the end of that time Miss Barton needed 
rest and change, and circumstances led her to 
Washington. She was never willing to remain 
idle very long, and soon found a position in the 
Patent Office, where she remained for five 
years, again storing up knowledge and experi- 
ence which would fit her for her future mission, 
of which she was still ignorant. 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 23 

With the coming of the Civil War began Miss 
Barton's activities. First in Baltimore and 
Washington, then away on the firing line, here 
and there from one great battle to another, dis- 
pensing stores of food and clothing and band- 
ages, nursing the wounded, comforting the dy- 
ing, Clara Barton soon became, not one of many 
women, but the one of many, and was known as 
"The Angel of the Battlefield." The govern- 
ment early realized the value of her work and 
she was officially appointed Superintendent of 
the Department of Nurses to the Army of the 
James. Although a nurse by instinct and genius, 
she was not a "trained nurse" and was never a 
registered army nurse. Experience taught her, 
however, how to perform necessary duties, as 
for example when, in one case, she cut a bullet 
away from the flesh of a suffering soldier's face. 
Florence Nightingale and Dorothea Dix spent 
most of their time in war service in hospitals; 
Clara Barton was chiefly on the battlefield. 

Following the close of the war, Miss Barton 
devoted the next four years to examining records 
in a search for "missing men," and in lecturing 
throughout the country to people who longed to 
know the actual happenings of the war. The 
proceeds of the lectures were used in helping 
those whose soldier boys had not returned from 
the battlefield by giving practical aid, as the 



24 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Red Cross is now helping the homes suffering 
from similar losses in this last great war. 

In 1869 Miss Barton went abroad. While 
visiting Geneva, she became acquainted with the 
great Red Cross, whose disciple and apostle she 
was thenceforward to be. She was approached 
almost at once and requested to inform herself 
thoroughly as to the organization, and upon her 
return to the United States to use her influence 
in securing the cooperation of this country. 

Miss Barton was in Switzerland when the 
Franco-Prussian War began, and was deeply 
impressed by the readiness and completeness of 
service of the Red Cross. Before a shot was 
fired the Red Cross officials were on their way, 
ready to give relief as soon as needed. Miss 
Barton recalled the conditions accompanying 
the Civil War and resolved to do all in her 
power to introduce the Red Cross into the 
United States. 

Meanwhile Clara Barton would not have been 
Clara Barton if she could have remained away 
from those French and Prussian battlefields or 
from the towns and homes destroyed and aban- 
doned. She threw herself at once, heart and 
soul, into the work of mercy and reconstruction, 
acting always under and through the Red Cross. 
Here she saw for the first time the medical staffs 
of two opposing armies working together in 




Underwood & Underwood 



CLARA BARTON 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 25 

the care of wounded soldiers. Wherever there 
was a battle, there she saw a squad of doctors 
and nurses in white, each with a cross of red 
on his or her sleeve, working behind the firing 
line to repair the damage done by the enemy. 
Not one unskilled woman was working alone for 
an army, but a whole group of trained men and 
women were serving with the sanction of their 
government, each having a definite share in the 
nursing. They accomplished so much in a short 
time that Clara Barton was inspired with the 
idea of introducing this same Red Cross in 
America, for she found that the ideals that had 
led the great women of the Civil War to work 
among both Northerners and Southerners were 
the same as those of the Red Cross — "Human- 
ity" and ''Neutrality." When she returned to 
this country in October, 1873, it was with the 
one idea of founding a branch of the Red Cross 
in America. 

For a period of about nine years Miss Barton 
devoted her time and energy to enlightening 
the people of this country as to the scope of work 
undertaken by the Red Cross, and as to the un- 
usual opportunities and privileges afforded a 
nation by its association with the organization. 
It was not until 1882 that the United States took 
its place with the other nations of the earth as 
a member of the International Red Cross. 



26 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

STRUCTURE OF THE RED CROSS 

When you mention the name of "the Red 
Cross," be sure you stop right there! Do not 
add the word Society or Order, because the 
founders of this organization were particular 
to emphasize the fact that the Red Cross is "not 
an order of knighthood, not a commandery, not 
a secret society, not a society at all by itself, but 
the powerful, peaceful sign and the reducing to 
practical usefulness of one of the broadest and 
most needed humanities the world has ever 
known. ^ There are no "members of the Red 
Cross," but only members of societies whose 
sign it is. There is no "Order of the Red 
Cross." The relief societies use, each according 
to its own convenience, whatever methods seem 
best suited to prepare in times of peace for the 
necessities of sanitary service in times of war. 
They gather and store gifts of money and sup- 
plies; arrange hospitals, ambulances, methods 
of transportation of wounded men, bureaus of 
information, correspondence, etc. 

The Red Cross is simply a confederation of 
relief societies in different countries, acting un- 
der the Geneva Convention, and carrying on its 
work under the sign of the Red Cross. The first 

1 Since the close of the war, in connection with the Red Cross 
League the word Society has been used as a term of convenience, 
although it is not a society or association. 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 27 

aim of its various branches is to improve the 
conditions of wounded soldiers in the armies in 
campaigns by land or sea. ''The Red Cross cre- 
ates an organized, neutral, volunteer force, from 
the people, supplied by the people, but still sub- 
ject to the regulations of the military in the 
field, recognized by and v^orking in full accord 
w^ith it, bringing all needed aid in the form of 
intelligent, disciplined assistance, and abundant 
supplies to the direct help and use of the medical 
department of an army, with which department 
it works, as if belonging to it." ^ 

"Originally the Red Cross recognizes only 
miseries arising from war," said Clara Barton. 
"But when great calamities overtake us, like 
plague, fire, flood, famine, earthquakes, events 
like war out of the common course of woes and 
necessities, then when there is no organized sys- 
tem for collection and distribution of funds, 
with no agents, nurses or materials, no resources 
in reserve, then the Red Cross should be called 
upon to constitute a useful and powerful system 
of relief." 

The Commission of Geneva is the only Inter- 
national Committee. All other committees are 
merely national or local. Each society is en- 
tirely national and independent, governing it- 
self and making its own laws according to its 

1 Address by Clara Barton. 



28 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

own needs. There are four great principles 
underlying the compact between the various na- 
tions included in the Treaty: 

1. Centralization: each commission to have 

its common central head. 

2. Preparation: in times of peace to prepare 

for needs suddenly arising with the out- 
break of war. 

3. Impartiality: aid of the Red Cross to be 

extended to friend and foe alike. 

4. Solidarity: nations not engaged in war may 

aid belligerent nations. 

It was not strange, perhaps, that the United 
States hesitated a long time before signing the 
Treaty and committing itself to its obligations. 
During the Civil War this country had estab- 
lished a Sanitary Commission, which had charge 
of inspection of camps and hospitals, and was the 
agent for distribution of supplies. It was the 
center of national relief, looking after transpor- 
tation of the wounded, sending out leaflets pre- 
pared by experts on the treatment of sick and 
wounded, hurrying medical supplies, blankets, 
and clothing to the front, organizing field re- 
lief corps and feeding stations, and fulfilling 
the various branches of relief as their need was 
realized. It was an impromptu, volunteer serv- 



MEANING OF THE CROSS OF RED 29 

ice whose object was to do all possible good in 
the most practical ways. The value of its work 
and its influence had been recognized and 
acknowledged by the Geneva Commission. 
We were now a united nation, we were confident 
that never again would our country be divided 
against itself in bloody warfare on the fields of 
battle, and we foresaw no possibility of ever en- 
gaging in war with any other country. So 
why the Red Cross in America? 

Our traditional policy is to ''avoid entang- 
ling alliances," and we never enter into any com- 
pact or "league" with foreign nations without 
deep and searching inquiry as to every possible 
condition involved. Miss Barton discovered 
that our nation is "naturally fearful of the 
abuses of monarchical systems in the Old World 
from which our Republic had been freed, and 
that an intense national individualism made 
America fearful of any International coopera- 
tion such as the Red Cross proposed." ^ 

However, in 1877 a committee was formed by 
four persons, styling itself the "American Na- 
tional Committee or Society of the Red Cross, 
for the Relief of Sufferings by War, Pestilence, 
Famine, Fire, Flood, and other Calamities, so 
great as to be regarded as national in extent." 

1 Epler, Percy H. "Life of Clara Barton." The Macmillan 
Company, 19 lo. 



30 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Afterward this committee was reorganized and 
incorporated as the Association of the Amer- 
ican Red Cross, by the advice of President Gar- 
field and three members of his Cabinet, James 
G. Blaine, Willian Windom, and Robert T. Lin- 
coln, with Miss Clara Barton as president. Five 
years later, public opinion had become so unani- 
mously favorable to the idea, that President 
Arthur signed the paper by which the United 
States officially became a member of the Inter- 
national Red Cross. 

According to the Treaty of Geneva, in each 
of the countries adopting the Treaty there is 
to be one Central National Committee of the 
Red Cross, with headquarters at the seat of gov- 
ernment. Such a committee was organized in 
the United States and incorporated under the 
title "The American National Red Cross." 
This Committee is the center of organization 
and has direction of all matters pertaining to 
general Red Cross work in this country, and 
includes the sole right to form innumerable 
branches. 



CHAPTER II 

The Red Cross in Time of Peace 

In 1 88 1 the American Red Cross was organ- 
ized, incorporated, and ready for work. What 
was it going to do? The answer was not long 
in coming, nor have the answers ceased to come 
during the years thereafter. In the period of 
twenty- three years from 1881 to 1904, there oc- 
curred twenty national disasters in which relief 
work was done by the Red Cross. Since the 
winter of 1905, there have been more than 
seventy-five calls for the Red Cross, due to earth- 
quakes, fires, volcanic eruptions, floods, cyclones, 
famines, epidemics of sickness, shipwrecks and 
mining disasters, and it has "gone on to a hun- 
dred fields of human misery and distress, bring- 
ing help and consolation." During frhe past 
fifteen years the American Red Cross has spent 
millions of dollars for the relief of hundreds of 
thousands of sufiferers from disaster in this coun- 
try and abroad.^ Even during the war, while 
the Department of Civilian Relief has been de- 
voting itself to the problems presented by the 

1 W. Frank Persons, Director General of Civilian Relief. 
31 



^2 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

dependent families of soldiers and sailors, it 
has continued its work of providing immediate 
relief in case of disaster. Sixty-four such cases 
were handled in 1 917. 

Fire, flood, famine, pestilence, and all sorts 
of frightful foes to mankind have always been 
likely to appear unforeseen and unannounced to 
claim their toll of life, property, comfort, and 
prosperity. Americans are a generous people, 
ever quick to respond to the call for help. In 
former days, when the telegraph and the news- 
paper brought news of dire calamity in some sec- 
tion of the country, instantly there began a flow 
of money, food, and clothing to the sufferers. 
In the afflicted sections local committees sprang 
up at once to give relief and to distribute the 
contributions arriving from abroad. Confusion 
naturally followed. The committees, however 
honest and conscientious, were usually inexperi- 
enced and sometimes over-zealous; working 
without any special system, they gave relief more 
or less without discrimination or investigation. 
So it might easily happen — more easily than not, 
in fact — that one family or individual would re- 
ceive aid from several sources, while some other 
family or individual might be overlooked com- 
pletely. The great value of the Red Cross at 
such times lies in its systematic method of relief, 
based on continued and varied observation and 




Uudenvood & Underwood 

AFTER THE SAN FRANCISCO FIRE 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 33 

practice. Of course, it always cooperates with 
the local committees; it is not a rival or an in- 
truder, simply a partner who has accumulated 
wisdom through wide practical experience. 

When the relief committee from the Red 
Cross visits a community which has just been the 
scene of great disaster, it not only advises as to 
distributing money and supplies, but it assumes 
the responsibility of looking after the welfare of 
the families affected by the misfortune, finding 
homes and work for those who need this kind of 
help, providing shelter and care for the sick, 
and making sure of the sanitary conditions of the 
place. 

FIRES 

Perhaps the disaster we are generally most 
familiar with is Fire. How excited we grow 
when the sparks go flying up from a neighbor- 
ing house! The fire engines rush down the 
street with bells clanging and sirens blowing, 
men and boys come hurrying from all directions, 
and every one is crying "Fire! Fire!" and run- 
ning about distractedly! We wonder if the fire 
will spread, whether we shall soon have to 
gather up our special treasures and flee for our 
lives! Then we find ourselves deciding what 
are our special treasures, and by the time we are 
very much excited, the alarm rings one, two, all 



34 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

out! the engines rattle away, the men and boys 
disperse, and all is quiet again. 

While it often happens that fires do only a 
little damage, unfortunately, however, especially 
in large cities, sparks sometimes fly over on to 
neighboring houses; two or more houses will be 
burning at once, people who live in them will 
have to flee for their lives, perhaps without be- 
ing able to stop to gather together their special 
treasures. Every once in a while fire breaks out 
under such circumstances and conditions as to 
become uncontrollable, and sweeps over vast 
areas, leaving death and destruction behind. 
There are two kinds of fires which carry great 
devastation in their wake, city fires and forest 
fires. "Between January i, 1905, and December 
31, 1916, the Red Cross assisted either in an ad- 
visory capacity or by active administrative par- 
ticipation or control, in organizing and directing 
disaster relief following ten city and five forest 
fires." 1 

The first national calamity to which the Red 
Cross was directed was a great forest fire in 
Michigan in 1881, really before the American 
Red Cross had become officially connected with 
the Geneva Commission. Word was received in 
Washington that "half the state of Michigan 

1 Deacon, J. Byron. "Disasters of the American Red Cross." 

Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1918. 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 35 

was on fire," that hundreds of persons had been 
burned to death and thousands more were panic- 
stricken in a vast country where only charred 
stumps remained in the place of extensive for- 
ests. It was reported that ''so sweeping was the 
destruction, that there is not food enough left 
for a rabbit to eat, and indeed, no rabbit to eat 
it if there were." Boxes of supplies were for- 
warded at once, and within a few days material 
and money to the value of $80,000 were received 
and distributed. Other extensive forest fires 
occurred in Michigan in 1908 and in Minnesota 
in 1908 and 1910. 

Such fires sweep with great rapidity over tim- 
ber lands and spread to adjoining villages, de- 
stroying farms, buildings, livestock, and crops, 
and driving all human beings from the stricken 
areas. The Red Cross is especially helpful in 
these emergencies. The homes of lumbermen 
are more or less scattered, sometimes lying deep 
in the forest, and relief has to be more personal 
and individual than in the case of town and city 
fires. Shacks and huts have to be built for the 
refugees, food and clothing provided, debris 
cleared away, dead animals buried, shelters con- 
structed for any horses, cows, pigs, chickens, 
and so forth that may be alive, roads cleared 
from fallen trees, and seeds and agricultural 
implements furnished for new crops. After the 



36 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

first pressing needs are adjusted, the work of re- 
construction begins, helping the families and the 
business concerns to "get on their feet" again and 
gradually bringing about normal conditions. 

Great fires in cities generally originate in the 
business sections, and increasing in fury spread 
to the residential districts. The two most no- 
table city fires in this country were the Chicago 
fire, in iSyr, and the Boston fire, in 1872. Both 
of these tragic disasters happened before the 
existence of the Red Cross in the United States. 
Since its establishment, there have occurred 
among others the San Francisco fire in 1906, 
the Chelsea, Massachusetts, fire in 1908, and the 
Salem, Massachusetts, fire in 1914. 

If fear and trembling and excitement fol- 
low the sight of a neighbor's house burning, 
because of the possibility of our own home be- 
ing reached by the flames, what wonder that 
panic seizes a community when it realizes that 
fire has become uncontrollable and is rapidly 
wiping out the entire town, building after build- 
ing, block after block, and that it must surrender 
to the devouring blaze. 

People rush out of their homes and places of 
business, families become separated, children are 
lost, old people are liable to accident, household 
goods are destroyed or lost or stolen, business 
papers and property of value are gone, every- 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 37 

thing is confusion and despair. Almost as 
quickly as the flames spread through the city, the 
news flies to other cities and immediately plans 
are on foot for relief. The recognized agency 
through which relief is now sent is the Red 
Cross, which at once begins its work of caring 
for the homeless. Food and shelter are the first 
things necessary, and then clothing for those who 
have been left without it. Lists are made of the 
residents of the various neighborhoods and 
"checked up" to determine whether any are 
"missing." People who have friends or rela- 
tives in other places, but who have no money for 
traveling, are helped to reach such destinations, 
where they may find temporary homes and help. 
Those who must remain homeless, and for the 
time being helpless, are fed and clothed and shel- 
tered and as soon as possible set to work. Mean- 
while, one most important feature of relief work 
is safeguarding the health of the citizens. Un- 
der abnormal conditions, special sanitary regula- 
tions have to be enforced. 

Many thousands of people came to know and 
appreciate the Red Cross through its work in 
California following the earthquake and fire in 
1906, when property to the value of $500,000,000 
was destroyed, 200,000 persons were made home- 
less, and nearly five hundred lives were lost. 
This was the first great disaster in our country 



38 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

after the reorganization of the Red Cross. 
The United States Army, the Citizens' Relief 
Committee and the Red Cross worked together, 
putting up tents and shacks in the city squares 
and parks, establishing ''bread lines" in which 
rich and poor stood side by side, victims of the 
same devouring flames, distributing the car- 
loads of supplies which arrived by railroad from 
all parts of the country, and dealing out money 
for temporary relief or as loans to help reestab- 
lish the borrower in business. At first over 
300,000 persons were driven to "join the bread 
line" ; soon the number was reduced to 27,000 
families; and at the end of the relief work, with 
the city pretty well cleaned up and families 
fairly well rehabilitated, not more than 600 per- 
sons in all that great city were left permanently 
dependent. 

Now and then, from time to time, there oc- 
curs some special tragedy in the way of a fac- 
tory fire, or a fire in a theater or other public 
building, which results in appalling destruction 
of human life. In the case of the factory fire, 
there is also to be considered the loss of the 
money earned by those losing their lives or being 
seriously injured, as affecting the living condi- 
tions of families dependent upon them. In 
such instances, the Red Cross cooperates with 
the police and city officials, with clergymen, 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 39 

priests and rabbis, in locating families, investi- 
gating their losses and their needs, communicat- 
ing with relatives and friends, and advising as 
to temporary relief or permanent aid. In one 
notable instance, ''within three days the relief 
committee's staff of trained workers, enlisted 
from the social agencies of the city, had visited 
all the families whose names appeared on the 
long list." ^ 

Perhaps the most horrible kind of fire — if 
there is any degree in such horror — is the fire 
in the mine, when the victims are almost un- 
questionably doomed to imprisonment in the 
bowels of the earth and to death by suffocation 
or burning. "Among the disasters which have 
been of most frequent occurrence and most costly 
of human lives are those resulting from fires and 
explosions in coal mines," reports the Russell 
Sage Foundation. The Red Cross had occasion 
to ofifer service in eleven mine disasters in eight 
years. Ways of procedure and method of serv- 
ice have to be adapted to the peculiar circum- 
stances of these situations. The sufferers from 
these tragedies do not find themselves without 
shelter or food or clothing; there is no immediate 
destitution. They have to face the present 
crisis of doubt and distress, and future means of 
living. Grief, excitement, and exposure bring 

1 Deacon, J. Byron. "Disasters of the American Red Cross." 



40 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

on physical and nervous ailments, and the Red 
Cross supervises the welfare of the suffering 
families on the health side. It renders kindly 
personal services, and attempts to help those of 
the family who are left to live happy, useful, nor- 
mal lives after the first weeks of stunning sorrow 
and prostration are past A notable instance oc- 
curred at the time of the Cherry Mine disaster, 
when the Red Cross national director perfected 
a pension system for permanent aid, so that 
every woman and every child under sixteen years 
was provided for. "Families were kept together 
and mothers required to send their children to 
school. The Red Cross became the wage earner 
of the family and the guardian of the children." ^ 

FLOODS 

Only those persons who had their homes or 
their places of business in cities or towns lo- 
cated on the banks of great rivers, can realize 
the terror and alarm which overwhelm a com- 
munity when the cry is sounded, ''The river is 
rising." Sometimes floods arise and overspread 
the river banks rapidly, with little or no warn- 
ing, and the inhabitants of the towns have to 
flee for safety, leaving houses, stores, livestock, 
everything behind them, to the mercy of the 
cruel waters. When the stream becomes swollen 

iBoardman, Mabel T. "Under the Red Cross Flag." 



t'-MI^ 




Underwood & Underwood 

AFTER THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 41 

more gradually, it is the way of human nature 
to ''hope for the best," and to think each day, 
"Oh, the river will certainly subside by to-mor- 
row; it can't rise any higher." And even when 
the waters overflow the banks and fill the cellars 
and streets of lower down town, the citizens in 
the residential part of the town still are wont to 
say, ^'We are safe here, the water will never 
reach us.'' Then suddenly one morning, per- 
haps, they awake to find the front piazza gone, 
the piano sailing about the living room, the 
kitchen stove indulging in a similar excursion, 
and what are they to do? If no rescuer comes 
and the waters rise rapidly, families may be 
driven to the attics, they may even break through 
the roof and perch on top of the house until life 
savers come rowing along on the rushing torrent 
and carry these terrified and nearly drowning 
people to some place of safety. 

There are in the United States two rivers 
which have had an unpleasant way of overflow- 
ing, bringing destruction and death in their 
waves. These are the Ohio and the Mississippi 
rivers, which especially during the '8o's caused 
no end of trouble. The greatest actual calamity 
in flood as in fire is the destruction of property, 
rather than the loss of life, although of course 
the amount of discomfort and exposure and un- 
happiness is incalculable. People are driven 



42 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

from their homes, frequently being able to save 
nothing but the clothes on their backs, and some- 
times the flood bursts upon a town in the night 
and then the victims' clothes are only night- 
clothes and insufficient for protection. Fleeing 
to the highest points of land, the citizens must 
wait until somehow and from somewhere there 
comes help in the way of material from which 
to construct temporary shelters. For food and 
clothing they are also dependent upon relief 
from some one, somewhere, somehow. 

This mysterious, but extremely necessary, 
some one is nowadays the Red Cross, whose 
agents cooperate with merchants and with the 
government to provide for all emergency needs. 
As already stated in this chapter, the first call of 
the infant Red Cross in the United States was to 
aid sufferers from forest fires. The second call 
was from flood victims, and the call was repeated 
several times within the next few years. The 
Mississippi River floods of 1882 and 1883, and 
the Ohio and Mississippi floods of 1884, brought 
to the people of the west a very vivid idea of the 
value of the Red Cross. In the Mississippi flood 
of 1882, millions of acres of cotton and sugar 
plantations were inundated and thousands of 
homes submerged. In the spring of 1883 the 
Mississippi overflowed again, and much loss of 
stock and ruin to the farms and grain lands oc- 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 43 

curred, although small loss of life. In both of 
these disasters, the Red Cross supplied not only 
food, clothing, and the usual necessary things of 
life, but sent seeds and plants for the crops of 
the coming season. 

The Ohio and Mississippi rivers united to do 
their worst in 1884. Cities were afloat, villages 
wrecked, levees broken and useless. The Red 
Cross chartered two steamers which for four 
months traveled back and forth, up and down 
the Ohio from Cincinnati to Cairo, and from St 
Louis to New Orleans on the Mississippi, cover- 
ing a distance of over 8000 miles, distributing 
relief to the stricken inhabitants. The boats 
carried clothing, food, medical supplies, fuel, 
grain, seeds, agricultural implements, and 
timber for the building of new homes. In many 
instances the steamer would land as the freshet 
subsided, carpenters with timber would speedily 
put up structures, the Red Cross would stock 
the houses with furniture and food, and leave 
seed so that farming might be resumed. 

Have you ever heard the story of "The Little 
Six"? It was one Miss Barton delighted to tell 
in connection with this big flood of 1884. Six 
children in Pennsylvania, three girls and three 
boys, gave an entertainment for the benefit of 
the flood victims, raising $51.25, and sending the 
money on with the request that it should be used 



44 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

"where it would do the most good." When the 
money reached Miss Barton, who was at the head 
of the relief expedition, she determined it should 
be used for some very particular purpose. A 
few days later a family was discovered living in 
a corn crib ; a mother with six children, the eldest 
a lad in his 'teens, and the youngest a tiny girl. 
The father had died two years before, and the 
family had struggled along on a little farm, with 
a few cows and hogs and fowls. One misfor- 
tune after another had come to them, and now 
their house had fallen, their goods were swept 
away, and only a few fowls remained. Here 
were six children, and of course the most natural 
and most beautiful thing in the world was to 
use the gift of the other little six for this little 
six. The story was told to the poor, sad mother, 
and the committee gave her the money with 
enough more to rebuild her old home, and sent 
boxes of clothing and bedding and household 
supplies. The grateful woman said she should 
name her new house "The Little Six." This 
she did, and a sign was put up at a certain land- 
ing point on the Ohio River, which read, "Lit- 
tle Six Red Cross Landing." 

Five years after this, in 1889, the country was 
shocked by the news that the dam across the 
South Fork of the Conemaugh River at a point 
ten miles east of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, not 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 45 

far from Pittsburgh, had broken, that within a 
few minutes the entire valley was devastated, 
and that the city of Johnstown and its surround- 
ing villages were practically swept away. 
There were 4000 dead and 20,000 homeless left 
behind the rushing current. Of the few houses 
left standing, there was scarcely one that was 
safe to enter, wrecks piled in rubbish thirty feet 
in height, and after the waters from the reservoir 
had subsided, a cold rain settled in and con- 
tinued for forty days without an hour of sun- 
shine. 

Again the Red Cross came to reinforce the 
efforts of the citizens and the military and the 
State relief appointed by the government. The 
dead had to be identified; the hungry had to be 
fed and the sick cared for; clothes and homes 
must be provided for those left alone with 
neither family, friends, homes, nor any of the 
things that had been theirs. For the following 
five months the Red Cross committees remained 
on duty, living at first in tents and wading about 
on errands of mercy through the rain and mud. 
It was all of three weeks before a cart could pass 
through the streets. So many agencies were 
contributing food and clothing, that the Red 
Cross found its most valuable assistance would 
be to help in the erection of houses. Six apart- 
ment buildings known as "Red Cross Hotels" 



46 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

were quickly put up, furnished, supplied, and 
carried on like hotels, free of all cost to the peo- 
ple of Johnstown. The general committee also 
built 3000 other houses which they stocked with 
furniture supplied by the Red Cross. 

In the eight years between 1908 and 191 6, 
the American Red Cross assisted in relief work 
following eighteen floods. The Mississippi once 
more overflowed its banks in 191 2, and the Ohio 
River the following year. Not since the earth- 
quake and fire in San Francisco had there oc- 
curred so serious a calamity until the Ohio Val- 
ley flood of 1913, which is said to have ''pre- 
sented the greatest disaster relief problem with 
which the American Red Cross has ever had to 
deal." ^ In the spring of that year an excep- 
tionally heavy rain, lasting for five days, fell 
over a wide area in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
where the soil was already well saturated by the 
usual moderate rains of springtime. "While the 
rain fell in what seemed at times a veritable 
cloud-burst, rivers burst their banks, inundated 
the cities, towns, villages, and farm lands along 
their borders, and drove the terrified people to 
the nearest hilltop. The water poured into 
houses, ruined furniture, undermined founda- 
tions, wrecked walls, floated many wooden build- 
ings from their sites, and deposited a mass of 

1 Deacon, J. Byron. "Disasters of the American Red Cross." 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 47 

mud and wreckage over the whole flooded area. 
There were 70,000 dwellings damaged and 
3000 totally destroyed. About 600 persons 
were drowned, and 320,000 rendered tempo- 
rarily dependent." ^ Almost the whole state of 
Ohio was included in the flooded districts, with 
parts of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
and West Virginia suffering serious damage. 

Again the United States Army and com- 
mittees appointed by cities and states united for 
relief. And again the Red Cross supplemented, 
and organized, and reinforced in the places 
most needed. From its experience it was able 
to give wise counsel as to ''how to do things," 
especially in establishing systematic methods of 
relief distribution. The Red Cross nurses were 
particularly helpful in showing the people how 
to carry out sanitary measures and so avoid the 
danger of epidemic; they also set up emergency 
hospitals and dispensaries, and canvassed the 
communities in health investigations. Other 
tasks were helping to repair damaged dwellings, 
many of which were towed back by motor boats 
from the spots to which they had drifted; in 
supplying furniture for the remodeled and re- 
built homes; in aiding people to get a new start 
toward earning a living; and in doing some- 
thing toward equipping the farms with stock 
and seed and implements. 

1 Deacon, J. Byron, op. cit. 



48 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

A Red Cross nurse who had charge of one of 
the departments of service in Dayton during 
the Ohio Valley flood, in giving an account of 
what she saw, said : "In the dripping rain stood 
the 'bread line,' an appalling line of patient wait- 
ing people, two nurses hurrying up and down 
its length, helping a mother with her child; be- 
stowing packages more securely in a basket; 
fastening a cloak about weary shoulders; giv- 
ing a smile here, a few cheerful words there; 
carrying away a fretful child until the mother is 
ready to go home; helping a fainting woman 
to rest and shelter." There too she saw a school- 
house turned into a relief station in which were 
rest room, dining room, kitchen, hospital. The 
recitation hall was made a First Aid Room. 
Drugs and bandages were on the teacher's desk, 
and there was always somewhere about a blue- 
gowned young woman with a Red Cross on 
her sleeve, bandaging cuts and bruises. In 
what had been a city church she saw a Red Cross 
nurse cutting bread and butter, pouring coffee, 
sorting and giving out clothes, bathing children 
who had lost their mothers. Outside in the 
streets were river mud and wreckage piled 
shoulder high. Houses were either rocking on 
their foundations or entirely washed away. 
Here and there a Red Cross worker could be 
seen picking her way around among wrecked 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 49 

furniture, soaked mattresses, ruins of porches, 
wagons, and sheds, taking charge of every kind 
of work from feeding the baby to digging 
ditches to let the water drain off. ''A good 
piece of work was that done in Dayton, thor- 
oughly good nursing work, done in harmony of 
spirit and cooperation. Remembering that such 
work could be duplicated by the Red Cross, if 
necessary, in a score of places, one could only 
say, as did the Dayton physician, with tears very 
near the surface, 'God bless the Red Cross nurses 
everywhere.' " ^ 

TORNADOES 

The flood is very often accompanied by the 
tornado. It may surprise some readers to learn 
that "tornadoes more frequently than any other 
type of disaster known have created relief prob- 
lems for the Red Cross." ^ The reports show 
that from January i, 1906, to July 31, 1907, the 
Red Cross took part in one way or another in re- 
lief work following sixty-four tornadoes, and 
during five months in 1917 there were tornadoes 
to the number of fifty-eight. This is one calam- 
ity against which little can be done in the way 
of precaution. A cloud is seen rising rapidly 
in the west or south and within five minutes, 

iBoardman, Mabel T. "Under the Red Cross Flag." 
2 Deacon, J. Byron, op. cit. 



50 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

perhaps, an entire township has been entirely de- 
stroyed and become a mass of wreckage. Peo- 
ple may safeguard their lives by fleeing to 
"cyclone cellars," but no power on earth can pre- 
vent the coming of a tornado nor break the 
force of the destructive element. 

Floods, tornadoes, and city-wide fires call for 
the same kind of special work on the part of 
the Red Cross. There are refugees to be 
housed and fed, law and order to be maintained, 
and health and sanitary regulations to be en- 
forced. In case of tornadoes, there are build- 
ings and furniture to be reassembled, and 
wounded and dead to be removed from piles of 
wreckage. The Middle West is the scene of 
the majority of cyclone and tornado disasters, 
although the first two in which the Red Cross 
volunteered for service were in the South. 

One great disaster of past years was the sweep- 
ing of a hurricane and tidal wave along the coast 
of South Carolina, covering the entire range 
of the Port Royal Islands, which stretch along 
the coast for over one hundred and fifty miles. 
These islands are well wooded with pine, oak, 
magnolia, and gum trees, and are noted for the 
"Sea Island cotton" produced there. Suddenly 
one night in August, 1893, ^ hurricane com- 
bined with a tidal wave struck the islands, 
crushing all buildings, washing many of them 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 51 

away, uprooting trees, and drowning people 
and cattle. Four or five thousand of the in- 
habitants (mostly negroes )were washed away, 
some never to be recovered ; about thirty thou- 
sand were left homeless, having saved their lives 
by climbing into the trees and clinging to their 
swaying branches. 

Here the Red Cross, after feeding and cloth- 
ing the people, helped in getting together homes 
for them to live in as soon as the flood had sub- 
sided. It drained the land of salt water, cleaned 
out wells (where the drinking water had become 
salt water), and instructed and advised inhabi- 
tants as to replanting their crops and building 
permanent houses. "The submerged lands were 
drained, three hundred miles of ditches made, a 
million feet of lumber purchased and houses 
built, fields and gardens planted with the best 
seed in the United States, and the work all done 
by the people themselves," under direction of 
the Red Cross workers.^ 

Can you imagine what an undertaking it 
would be to try "to clothe and to keep clothed 
30,000 human beings for a year, and to do this 
from the charitable gifts of other people, all 
of which gifts have done more or less service 
before?" ^ The Red Cross women in charge 

lEpler, Percy H. "Life of Clara Barton." 
2 Barton, Clara, "Story of the Red Cross." D. Appleton & Co., 
1904. 



52 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

of this branch of work formed old-time ''sew- 
ing circles" in every community, and taught the 
colored women how to mend and make over gar- 
ments. Girls over ten years old had their own 
"sewing circles," and many a little dress was re- 
paired or remodeled by them. No people are 
more grateful for favors than the black people. 
They repeatedly, in one way or another, con- 
veyed their thanks and appreciation to the mem- 
bers of the Red Cross. One day a tall mulatto 
man came to say that he had been asked to bring 
the thanks of the people in his community for 
"de home, de gardin, de pig, and de chick'n 
dey all has now." And he also brought from 
these people a basket — which he had carried 
forty miles — containing seventy-one fresh eggs, 
one from each family in that community. 

In September, 1900, another combination of 
tornado and tidal wave resulted in the submerg- 
ing of Galveston, the metropolis of Texas, with 
the loss of nearly 10,000 lives and the utter de- 
struction of 4000 homes. Extending over 1000 
square miles of surrounding country, twenty 
counties were inundated, and sixty towns and 
villages were in need. Representatives of the 
Red Cross were soon on the spot. They fur- 
nished medical supplies and surgical dressings, 
lumber for new homes, distributed clothing 
which arrived from all over the country, as- 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 53 

sisted persons to get away to friends elsewhere, 
and took care of all surviving children who 
were left without father or mother. The situa- 
tion was one of the most appalling, most dis- 
tressing, and most revolting ever to be dealt with, 
and the details are too harrowing to repeat. It 
is interesting to know that among those who 
sent contributions for the sufferers were the ne- 
groes of the Carolina Sea Islands, who sent 
$397.00 in remembrance of the assistance they 
had received when in similar extremity. 
" 'Cause dey suffers like we did, and de Red 
Cross is dar," they said.^ This money was given 
to the superintendent of the colored schools in 
Galveston, who, with a committee of women 
teachers, distributed the sum among the neediest 
families of their own race. 

ACCIDENTS ON THE WATER 

Once in a while it happens that a company 
of people starting out on a trip by water, has 
its pleasure turned to tragedy and the excursion- 
ists never reach their destination and perhaps 
never return alive. It may be a Sunday School 
picnic or the annual outing of some society 
workers or pleasure seekers that is the victim of 
disaster. Perhaps the excursionists have started 
on a large boat for a trip of several days — pos- 
sibly across the ocean. 

1 Barton, Clara. "Story of the Red Cross." 



54 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

One day a company of people crowded over 
on the side of an unballasted steamer as it waited 
at the dock to take them away for a day's en- 
joyment. The vessel turned completely over 
and eight hundred lost their lives. 

One day a steamship which carried hundreds 
of Poles and Austro-Hungarians who were com- 
ing to the United States to earn a better living 
and have a better home, was burned at sea. The 
survivors were rescued by fourteen different 
ships and carried to various ports in the United 
States and Canada. 

Another day a great number of people, over 
2000, were crossing the Atlantic on the finest 
ocean liner that had ever been built, when sud- 
denly, late in the evening, the steamer struck an 
iceberg and went down within four hours. 
Only about seven hundred were saved and 
brought to New York. 

On still another, more appalling occasion, a 
still grander ocean liner with a yet larger 
number of passengers went sailing across the 
Atlantic, only to be sent to the bottom by the 
murderous act of a treacherous foe. 

Such accidents as those of the Eastland, the 
Volturno, the Titanic, and the Lusitania present 
a sorrowful duty the Red Cross has to face. To 
care for the survivors when they reach port, 
to provide temporary shelter, to furnish clothing, 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 55 

to advance money for railroad fares, to com- 
municate with distracted relatives, and often- 
times to reunite families, some members of 
vs^hich may have been taken by one rescuing 
steamer to one port and some to another by an- 
other vessel, — these are the heart-breaking tasks 
which the Red Cross willingly undertakes. 

PESTILENCE 

Pestilence and Famine, those two gaunt 
specters, do not often stalk across our fair land. 
In these days of vaccination and inoculation, 
research into all realms of microbes and germs 
and bacteria, it is a rare thing for an epidemic 
to develop. [Although from September, 191 8, 
far into the following year, the mysterious "in- 
fluenza" claimed greater toll than the War it- 
self, while doctors and nurses — working under 
greatest pressure day and night — were practi- 
cally ignorant and unskilled as to its treatment 
or cure and prevention.] Two notable epi- 
demics during the earlier days of the Red Cross 
were the Yellow Fever Plague in Florida in 
1888 and the Typhoid Fever Epidemic in Penn- 
sylvania in 1904. In each of these instances the 
Red Cross nurses rendered faithful, unselfish 
service, saving all lives possible and seeing 
through to the end those that were past help, 
hastening from one plague spot to another until 
the disease was stamped out. 



56 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

FAMINE 

Famine in our country is practically un- 
known. Yet for three years, from 1885 to 1887, 
Texas suffered seriously from lack of rain and 
consequent lack of crops. Hundreds of thou- 
sands of cattle died, and the people were in direst 
want. A committee from the Red Cross went 
to investigate conditions. True to its policy, to 
advise and assist people to help themselves, the 
Red Cross gave widest publicity throughout the 
region to the conditions existing in certain sec- 
tions, and almost immediately the great state 
of Texas rallied to its own relief, needing but 
little outside assistance. 

The obligations of the Red Cross do not end 
with its own country. Wherever distress exists 
on so extensive a scale as to need outside help, 
there it must stand ready for service. What was 
probably the first errand abroad for our Ameri- 
can Red Cross, was its mission to Russia in the 
famine of 1891-92. The crops of Central Rus- 
sia, in a region covering an area of a million 
square miles, had failed for three years, leaving 
a population of 35,000,000 people facing a con- 
dition of famine. The Russian government and 
the more fortunate among the Russian people 
did all they could to relieve the sufferings of 
their fellow countrymen, but the suffering was 




Underwood & Underwood 



SEA SWEPT GALVESTON 



THE RED- CROSS IN PEACE 57 

so excessive and widespread that the resources 
of even so great a country as Russia were in- 
adequate. 

News of the situation was received by the 
American Red Cross, but no action was taken 
until general information had reached the 
United States, and in hearts and homes all over 
the great generous country there sprang up the 
impulse to help. Iowa sent 225 carloads of 
corn (117,000 bushels), and funds were raised 
to charter a steamship for the Red Cross to carry 
the cargo across the seas to the port of Riga. 
The American Red Cross and the Russian Red 
Cross worked together in its distribution. Al- 
though the work of the American Red Cross 
was comparatively less at this time than in many 
other emergencies, it rendered important serv- 
ice in nursing the sick and in supervising 
the distribution of corn throughout the vil- 
lages. 

A peculiarly perplexing situation faced the 
American Red Cross when it was requested to go 
to Armenia, in 1896, to carry relief to the sur- 
vivors of recent terrible massacres. England 
and the United States had raised funds and sup- 
plies, but neither country found it possible to 
obtain permission from Turkey to enter the 
stricken country. In thousands of towns and 
villages human beings were starving and could 



58 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

not be reached. Mission boards were as help- 
less as representatives of governments. Fanati- 
cism and suspicion combined to repress the ac- 
tivities of all Christians. 

The Red Cross, because of its vs^atchwords, 
^'Neutrality — Humanity," might perhaps be 
trusted to enter the country and to penetrate into 
the interior. As Turkey was one of the signers 
of the Geneva Treaty, and because of this fel- 
lowship, the authorities agreed to permit the 
American Red Cross agents to come and to carry 
out their work of mercy, even providing mili- 
tary escort for their protection. Five expedi- 
tions passed through Armenian Turkey from sea 
to sea, distributing whatever was needed. No 
obstruction was ever placed in the way. Medi- 
cine, help, and food were provided; refugees 
were returned to, their own villages, and sup- 
plied with necessary equipment for resuming 
their labor and planting their farms anew to in- 
sure the sufficient harvest and protect against 
famine. Even cows and oxen were secured, as 
the robber bands which had stripped the country 
had driven off every animal, leaving no oxen, 
cows, horses, goats, or sheep. For several 
months the Red Cross representatives lived a 
rough, uncivilized life. Almost out of com- 
munication with the rest of the world, more or 
less in fear of danger, yet coming out of it all 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 59 

"without one unpleasant transaction with any 
person of whatever name or race." ^ 

A new experience was now ahead of the 
American Red Cross, leading into avenues 
of service hitherto unknown. Of course, it had 
been a new and wonderful experience in some 
ways, to visit Russia and Armenia, bringing help 
from far across the seas and the continents. The 
work there, however, had been practically the 
same as that accomplished at home: distribution 
of food, money, and supplies, administered after 
the same general methods used in America, now 
reduced to a regular working system ready for 
application anywhere. 

With the call to Cuba, in 1898, there began 
a series of altogether new problems, all unfore- 
seen at the beginning. A cry had come for 
money and food, stories had reached us of misery 
and distress, news had arrived to the effect that 
thousands were dying and hundreds of thousands 
were in need of relief. Once more the United 
States government called on the National Red 
Cross, requesting that it send representatives to 
Cuba to act as distributing agents for the State 
Department and for the relief committees which 
had been raising funds throughout the United 
States. The program to be carried out was ex- 
pected to be that now so well proved and so 
efficiently organized. 

1 Barton, Clara. "Story of the Red Cross." 



6o GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

FIRST WAR WORK 

Hardly had their mission begun along well- 
established lines, when hostilities broke out be- 
tween Spain and the United States, and all 
Americans were called home from Cuba. Then 
began the first war work of the American Red 
Cross, and soon there developed all sorts of new 
branches of service. Camps sprang up in 
various sections of the country, and it became 
evident that the Red Cross could render the 
most practical service in caring for the men 
there assembled. 

Soon an important branch of work developed 
in looking after the soldiers going back and forth 
from one camp to another or going home. 
They were the same kind of hungry men that 
our boys of 1917-19 have been, and just as glad 
to get coffee and sandwiches. Those who were 
ill were given soup, milk, fruit, and other 
nourishing delicacies. Before long handker- 
chiefs, soap, and reading matter were added to 
the gifts along the way. 

All over the country there sprang up Aux- 
iliary Societies which helped in these various 
departments of service. Women ever5rwhere 
were busy making sheets, pillow cases, mosquito 
nets, pajamas, bandages, and all sorts of things 
such as women have been making during recent 
years for soldiers in the World War. 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 6i 

Diet kitchens in the camps were established 
and proved to be of inestimable value. Sanitary 
conditions around the camps were insured by 
daily scavenger service and the use of disinfec- 
tants. In one case typhoid became epidemic; a 
large corps of Red Cross nurses under a capable 
superintendent went to the camp, and by in- 
telligent attention and devoted care completely 
routed that enemy. This was the first time that 
women had been organized in large numbers as 
nurses in a field hospital. 

In some of the camps at first the Red Cross 
was told that women nurses were not needed 
and were not wanted, that women around a 
camp would be only a nuisance! But one by 
one the officers changed their minds, and it was 
not long before the nurses were sought for and 
welcomed at the hospitals. After the war was 
really on, and the wounded began to be brought 
to the hospitals, the Red Cross nurses worked 
incessantly. These were the first volunteer 
nurses of the American Red Cross to serve in 
war. 

Another innovation was the hospital ship. 
For the first time in the history of warfare hos- 
pital ships for the relief of sick and wounded 
were employed. A yacht named the Red Cross 
was fitted up with medical and surgical sup- 
plies and used to transport patients from camp 



62 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

hospitals in the South to permanent hospitals 
in the cities of the North. The boat was com- 
fortably furnished, and carried a doctor and 
three trained nurses. Twenty-eight trips were 
made. 

And so throughout the Spanish-American 
War, the Red Cross flag floated above hospital 
tents. At all times of day the Red Cross boats, 
with the familiar flag flying, could be seen go- 
ing from transport to transport on errands of 
mercy. This was really the first opportunity to 
test the cooperation of the government and the 
Red Cross under war conditions. 

RELIEF WORK ABROAD 

The international character of Red Cross ac- 
tivities has grown with time. Within ten years 
of its reorganization, more than two score ap- 
peals reached the American Red Cross from 
widely separated sections of Europe, Central 
and South America, Canada, and the Far East. 
Italy was the scene of a widespread earthquake 
shock during the Christmas week of 1908. The 
American and Italian Red Cross worked 
heartily together to relieve the distressing needs 
of the stricken people. There were earthquakes 
in Valparaiso, Costa Rica, Turkey, and Portu- 
gal; famine in Japan and Russia; forest fires in 
Canada; floods in France, Serbia, and Mexico; 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 63 

more massacres in Armenia ; war in the Balkans ; 
and many other kinds of disaster and calamity 
calling for relief in all quarters of the globe. 
Manchuria presented a new problem, the pneu- 
monic plague, a strange, unknown, deadly 
pestilence; when China suffered from fearful 
famine in 1907, the American Red Cross ex- 
pended nearly $600,000 in its behalf, and ten 
years later when a flood disaster left 400,000 
Chinese destitute, the American Red Cross, at 
the request of the American minister to China, 
formed a relief organization and provided a 
fund of $125,000 for its use; the same year, 1917, 
following an earthquake in San Salvador which 
nearly destroyed the city, money, building 
material, medicine, and clothing were sent 
through the Red Cross to the sufferers. 

In December, 1917, occurred the tragic explo- 
sion and fire in Halifax. At nine o'clock on the 
morning of Thursday, December 6, the fright- 
ful accident occurred. A munitions ship car- 
rying 3000 tons of the most destructive of all 
known explosives blew up in Halifax harbor, 
and a great part of the city was destroyed. 
Many people were killed and many more were 
injured and made destitute by accident and fire. 
News of the occurrence reached Boston and 
New York at one o'clock on Thursday, and by 
Friday night relief was on the way. Within 



64 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the next two or three days special Red Cross 
trains flying the Red Cross flag carried full 
equipment for an entire base hospital of five 
hundred beds with complete personnel. Doc- 
tors, surgeons, nurses, orderlies, and medical 
social workers went to render service. Carloads 
of milk, cases of condensed milk, cases of cloth- 
ing, blankets, building material (including glass 
and putty), foodstuffs, surgical supplies, band- 
ages, disinfectants, and everything that efficient 
Red Cross directors could suggest as being pos- 
sibly required, reached the stricken city with 
characteristic Red Cross promptness. 

Have you noticed that nearly all the activities 
of the Red Cross so far described begin with the 
letters r e? If you will consider a moment, you 
will observe that the principal work of the Red 
Cross has been responding to calls for aid, re- 
lieving sufferers, reviving life, restoring health 
or happiness, renewing courage and strength and 
active interest in life under new conditions, re- 
uniting families, sometimes removing them to 
other places, rebuilding houses and refurnish- 
ing homes, reconstructing towns and society, re- 
placing lost goods, reimbursing money losses, 
replenishing stores of food and supplies, replant- 
ing farms and fields, and generally revising 
everything and everybody! If you give time 
and thought to the subject, you will doubt- 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 65 

less be able to think of many other accomplish- 
ments beginning with the same magic letters. 

"first aid" 

While undertaking their various missions, the 
Red Cross workers became impressed with the 
need of certain other lines of service beginning 
with the letters p r e — precaution, prevention, 
prevision, preparedness, and perhaps you may 
suggest a number more. 

We are informed by those who have collected 
statistics bearing on the subject of accidents in 
the United States, that of the 90,000 fatal ac- 
cidents occurring in one year, the half million 
accidents which permanently disable people for 
work and the 2,000,000 which result in tem- 
porary incapacity, at least 66 per cent are due 
to negligence and only 34 per cent to risk that 
cannot be avoided. The Red Cross, believing 
that it is quite as important, if indeed not more 
so, to save life and prevent accident as to relieve 
suffering or restore health, concluded and ad- 
vised that there should be established a system 
of education of the public with the use of safety 
devices and by instruction in prevention of dis- 
ease and accident and First Aid for the injured. 

''First Aid" has become a term to be recog- 
nized and respected everywhere, and evidences 
of its presence are never a surprise. It is teach- 



66 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

ing the public how to use precaution and how 
to prevent accident or death. When there is any 
great gathering where a large number of peo- 
ple are present, such as a reunion or convention 
or parade, the Red Cross is sure to be on hand, 
ready for any emergency. Especially at 
patriotic functions, such as veteran encamp- 
ments, inaugurations, and processions, the Red 
Cross is near at hand. And it extends its in- 
structions and privileges far and wide, so that 
boys and girls are trained to be of greatest as- 
sistance in giving First Aid to persons overcome 
by heat or fatigue or faintness, or by the pressure 
of great crowds, or even by accidents. Often 
these First Aid recruits prevent serious results. 
Classes are held quite generally throughout 
the country, instructing people how to give in- 
telligent First Aid help. If you cut yourself, 
or if you burn yourself, you probably know just 
what to do, because of your First Aid lessons; 
if your mother runs too quickly upstairs — or if 
grandmother falls downstairs — of if some one 
faints away in the Subway crush or at the 
"movies" — and their hearts behave badly, again 
you know just what to do, if you remember 
your First Aid instruction and have added to 
your value as a member of your household or 
community. 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 67 



WORK AMONG MINERS 



Among the workers who have been most 
greatly benefited by the Red Cross instruction are 
the miners. When we sit cozy and warm in our 
comfortable homes, with the radiators hissing 
merrily, perhaps a cheerful open fire adding to 
our pleasure; when we journey quickly and 
safely from one place to another in a railroad 
train or on a steamship ; or when we pass a fac- 
tory and hear the machinery humming and watch 
the black smoke pouring out from the tall 
chimneys, we seldom — perhaps never — give a 
thought to the miners who have worked deep in 
the earth to dig out the coal which makes so 
much comfort and happiness and business pos- 
sible. When statistics tell us that more than 
3000 miners lose their lives in one year, while 
9000 more are crippled or maimed, can we 
doubt that both the miners and the owners of 
mines were grateful for practical instruction in 
the way of precautionary methods? Classes 
have been formed among these underground 
workers and textbooks prepared for them by the 
Red Cross and translated into the various 
foreign languages spoken by the miners. 
Special emphasis is laid on precaution, and 
various "Don'ts" are impressed on the dillferent 
branches of workers. What not to do is quite 



68 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

as important as what to do, although First Aid 
lectures also teach the men what to do if acci- 
dents must occur. Quick action may save a life, 
or frequently many lives. 

One interesting feature of the work among 
the miners has been the competitive contests 
held from time to time in some open field, in 
which men from different mines form "teams" 
and compete in quick emergency tests, after the 
fashion of the meets of the Boy Scouts. 

AMONG RAILROAD WORKERS 

Once in a while a President of the United 
States or some other person prominent in public 
life, perhaps some member of nobility or of 
diplomatic circles, shakes hands with the engi- 
neer of a train which has carried him and his 
party to their destination and expresses thanks 
for a safe and comfortable trip. As a rule, how- 
ever, in this busy workaday world where we 
have grown to accept every duty performed in 
the routine of life just as we do the air we 
breathe, we ride back and forth on the trains 
and we see the long freight trains which bring 
us food and fuel and nearly all necessary sup- 
plies, and never give a thought to the engineer 
and brakeman and others who combine to make 
the journey a success. Unless we chance to see 
a man walking along on the tops of the cars of 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 69 

a moving freight train and wonder why he does 
not fall and break his neck, or unless we notice 
a man in overalls standing between two cars as 
they come to a bump when they are coupled to- 
gether, or unless our attention is attracted to a 
man who is crawling along underneath the cars 
making sure that something we do not know any- 
thing about is all safe and sound for the next 
journey, we accept the services of these men 
with scarcely a thought of the possible dangers 
they face day after day. 

The Red Cross, however, noting the peril at- 
tending the work of railroad men and the great 
loss of life and the number of accidents result- 
ing in serious injuries, decided that railroad 
employees needed instruction in First Aid and 
in the rule of Safety First. The Pullman Car 
Company provides the Red Cross with special 
cars, which the railroads carry free from one 
railway center to another, with doctors to de- 
liver lectures and teach classes and show men 
how to help intelligently and practically in time 
of accident. 

AMONG LUMBER-JACKS 

To read the exciting stories that have been 
written about the "lumber-jack" or to see the 
moving pictures of his cabin and of the great 
logs drifting — or rushing madly — down the 



70 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

river while the driver steps jauntily from log to 
log, all this tends to give an impression that the 
life of a lumber-jack is a fascinating, picturesque 
career, with just enough "thrills" to save it from 
monotony. 

As a matter of fact, logging is one of the most 
hazardous of occupations, never free from 
danger. Accidents caused by axes, hatchets, 
saws, and all sorts of sharp cutting instruments, 
falling trees, jamming logs, may result in cut 
and crushed limbs, in loss of life from 
hemorrhage or blood poisoning or from drown- 
ing. Here again is need of the Red Cross, 
which is gradually penetrating the forests and 
finding its way into the lumber camps. 

AMONG POLICE AND FIREMEN 

Chief among the men who guard our lives and 
homes and property are the police and firemen. 
With them the Red Cross finds double oppor- 
tunity, for it must teach these guardians of the 
people how to be able to administer First Aid 
not only to the public but to fellow officers. 
Red Cross knowledge is valuable to the police- 
man who may render First Aid emergency help 
while waiting for an ambulance to come for the 
victim of an accident. It may also help him 
in saving his own life or that of another officer 
when in danger from attack or exposure. For 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 71 

the fireman First Aid instruction is invaluable 
in the risks he is obliged to run, and helps him 
to save not only persons rescued from burning 
homes but firemen who are themselves overcome 
by smoke or flames. 

AMONG ELECTRICAL WORKERS 

Especial danger is connected with the work 
which exposes men to contact with the deadly 
''live wire." Appreciating the value of First 
Aid instruction, employers of telegraph and tele- 
phone workers have requested the Red Cross to 
give their employees courses especially suited 
to their needs and safety. 

AMONG SEAMEN 

Danger comes to those whose work is on the 
high seas, even more acutely perhaps than to 
those on land. For so separated from his fellow 
man is the toiler on the sea, that in case of 
emergency he must be absolutely self-reliant. 
Classes for seamen, therefore, are included in 
the work of the Red Cross and lessons are given 
in First Aid; some instruction in the knowledge 
of medicine also is undertaken, as ship doctors 
are a part of the crew on large vessels only, 
and on smaller craft the masters and mates are 
responsible for the treatment of any who are ill 
or injured. 



72 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 



AMONG LIFE-SAVERS 



An important branch of First Aid, in the line 
of life-saving attending accidents to people in 
the water, is maintained by the Red Cross in its 
life-saving corps along the seacoast, lakes, and 
rivers. So many persons ''go in bathing" or "go 
out rowing" or canoeing, without any knowledge 
of swimming, that hundreds of lives are lost 
every year from drowning. The Red Cross 
now gives First Aid courses in which it teaches 
girls and boys to swim, and to be able to swim 
while supporting another person, so as to bring 
a drowning person to shore. It also teaches how 
to revive a person who has been a long time 
under water. 

HEALTH WORK 

As the American Red Cross nurses have been 
employed in one way or another in all parts of 
the land, they have observed many directions in 
which a little precaution might prevent disease, 
save much life, much unnecessary labor, and 
even save unnecessary expenditure of money. 
There are a surprising number of people who do 
not know that dirt breeds disease; that dirty 
towns, dirty houses, dirty people, and dirty food 
are menaces to the whole nation. There are 
all too many housekeepers who do not know 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 73 

the danger of dust, the priceless value of fresh 
air and sunshine; there are too many mothers 
who do not know that babies should be fre- 
quently and carefully bathed, and that their food 
should be carefully selected and prepared; there 
are too many wives and mothers who do not 
know that a cross, ill-tempered family may be 
the result of badly chosen and badly cooked 
meals; and there are too many girls and boys 
who have not been brought up on the old adage 
"early to bed and early to rise," and who do not 
know that bread and butter and jam are better 
for them than chocolate eclairs and ice-cream 
sodas or than doughnuts and mince pies. 

The Red Cross nurses observed all these things 
in their wanderings over the broad earth, and 
they determined that they would do their share 
toward improving the health of the homes and 
the children. So a home-nursing service was 
established and Red Cross nurses were sent all 
over the country, into the remotest and the poor- 
est homes, to teach women how to prepare their 
food, how to keep their houses clean and sweet 
and dry and sunny, how to prevent the babies 
from "getting sick" and how to take care of 
them if they did become ill. Florence Nightin- 
gale has been quoted as saying that "nearly every 
woman at some time in her life is obliged to act 
in the capacity of a nurse to the sick," and the 



74 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

comment has been made that "she might have 
added that nearly all women at some time in 
their lives are obliged to be responsible in a 
great measure for the continued good health of 
the well." ^ 

So widespread has been the interest in all Red 
Cross work, and especially in the line of nursing 
and hygiene during these recent years, that 
women and girls everywhere are realizing the 
importance of being instructed in all branches 
of this kind of knowledge. They are learning 
"why food supplies should be protected from 
dust and insects, and perishable foods kept at a 
low temperature; why the water supply must 
be kept pure; why sinks, drains, dishes, cook- 
ing utensils, household and body linen should 
be kept as clean as soap, water, sunshine, and 
fresh air intelligently applied can make them," ^ 
and the importance of clean hands and finger 
nails, of clean mouths and teeth, of clean food 
and clean surroundings, in preventing infection 
and epidemic. 

TUBERCULOSIS 

In many schoolhouses, as Christmas ap- 
proaches, on the blackboards there are drawn 
copies of a familiar seal; other pictures of the 
same seal are tacked on the wall. At their 

1 "American Red Cross Textbook." 



THE RED CROSS IN PEACE 75 

desks girls and boys are trying to see what they 
can do in the way of making a new and more 
pleasing design. Prize essays on the "Christ- 
mas Seal" are being written, and many pupils 
are competing for prizes for selling the largest 
number of seals. 

One -of the most difficult diseases to prevent 
or to cure is the dreaded tuberculosis, which 
spreads like a white plague over all lands, claim- 
ing alike rich and poor, young and old. And 
one of. the tasks to which the Red Cross is 
solemnly — and gladly — committed is the stamp- 
ing out of this insidious enemy. The most suc- 
cessful method of securing the cooperation of 
the public, in getting everybody interested, has 
proved to be the use of the Christmas Seal. So 
general has its use become, that our Christmas 
parcels and letters would have a strange, lone- 
some look without the gay little seal. 

Every cent you spend for a Red Cross seal 
goes toward helping to take care of some boy or 
girl or man or woman, suffering from tubercu- 
losis, or in educating the public so that the dis- 
ease shall not be spread by unsanitary habits. 
'^Scores of day camps, on the roofs of hospitals 
in large cities, or on remodeled ferry boats, or 
formed of tents in pleasant groves, are supported 
by the sales of the little seal. These camps 
bring back health and happiness to multitudes 



76 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

of men, women, and children. Sanitaria, dis- 
pensaries, open-air schools, educational exhibits, 
visiting nurses, and countless other means for 
combating the white plague owe their existence 
to the penny Christmas seal with its emblem of 
the Red Cross." ^ 

iBoardman, Mabel T. "Under the Red Cross Flag." 



CHAPTER III 

The Call to Greater Service 

When the great World War broke out in 
1 914, there came the call to the Red Cross for 
world-wide service. And it all happened just 
about as abruptly as that! 

For instance, there was Margaret. She had 
been deeply interested in Red Cross work for sev- 
eral years, and her name was registered among 
those who might be called on for emergency 
service, ready to respond at once for work 
wherever needed. She was associated with a 
children's hospital and had become an expert 
in bacteriology. 

One morning as Margaret sat at the breakfast 
table, with her spoonful of grapefruit halfway 
to her mouth, she paused suddenly as the door- 
bell rang and almost immediately a telegram 
for her was announced. Dropping spoon and 
napkin, she tore open the yellow envelope and 
read: "Report at once for service overseas. 
Sail in a few days." The telegram was signed 
by a Red Cross official. And of course there 

•J7 



78 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

was nothing for Margaret to do, nor was there 
anything she wished to do, but to go! 

Margaret's mother's face looked pretty white. 
Margaret's small brother's face grew very red. 
Margaret's face was white and then red by 
turns. Margaret's father blew his nose vigor- 
ously! No one spoke for a very, very long mo- 
ment. 

Then followed fifteen minutes of frenzied 
telephoning, a half-hour of packing, a hug and 
a kiss and a sob from mother, a big bear hug 
and a kiss and sort of a gulp from small brother, 
and Margaret started away, with father carrying 
her suitcase. 

This is the way the summons came to many 
a girl who left home in obedience to the call of 
duty and desire, as it came to her, through the 
Red Cross, to be gone as Margaret was for a 
year, or perhaps longer, or possibly never to come 
home. 

If a call to service interferes with her present 
duties, a nurse is not required to respond in 
time of peace. In event of war, all Red Cross 
nurses must hold themselves in readiness to be 
called on after the earliest possible date as re- 
ported to their local committees. In no case has 
a Red Cross nurse ever failed to go willingly. 
This is one of the ear-marks — or the hall-mark 
— of the Red Cross. It never hesitates or re- 
fuses. It says always, "Yes"! 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 79 

Within two years of the outbreak of the great 
war, the American Red Cross was on every bat- 
tlefield of Europe, with nurses, surgeons, hos- 
pitals, ambulances, and all sorts of medical and 
hospital equipment. Here again the Red Cross 
training in First Aid became unexpectedly 
valuable. Not only nurses now know how to 
render First Aid, but so many of the "lay 
members" of the general public are efficient in 
this direction, that when the Red Cross was 
called on to establish base hospitals and equip 
them not only with doctors and surgeons and 
dentists and nurses, but also with clerks, cooks, 
orderlies, litter bearers, drivers, and various 
kinds of laborers, how important it was that 
these many and various classes of helpers could 
be chosen from among those already trained in 
First Aid. The medical reserve corps of the 
United States Army would not be large enough 
to meet such tremendous emergency conditions. 
Here the Red Cross medical bureau proved in- 
valuable in that it was prepared to furnish or 
to advise as to securing competent physicians 
and surgeons from all over the country. 

HOSPITAL SUPPLIES 

"In less than a year's time nearly 2,000,000 
bandages, over 1,000,000 surgical dressings, 
more than 1,000,000 yards of gauze, and nearly 



8o GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

1,000,000 pounds of absorbent cotton were sent 
to Europe. Half a million articles of clothing 
for the wounded and refugees were made by 
willing hands." ^ All the supplies for the 
American Red Cross hospitals were made in the 
United States. The Red Cross instituted surgi- 
cal-dressing classes, and women and children all 
over the United States worked day after day at 
Red Cross rooms making gauze compresses, 
wipes, rolls, and pads for wounded soldiers, hos- 
pital garments, pajamas, bath robes, and 
surgeons' robes. Besides the bandages and 
surgical dressings, the women of our country sent 
sheets and pillow cases and towels, socks and 
shirts; and into the pockets of the shirts and 
pajamas frequently they slipped handkerchiefs, 
pencils, picture postcards, and even little Ameri- 
can flags. Pajamas with a tiny red cross on the 
sleeve were in high favor among all patients of 
whatever nationality. 

''They never have enough pajamas," wrote an 
American girl motor driver who had been as- 
sisting in delivering hospital supplies in France; 
"the men have to leave them when they are 
transferred, which hurts them terribly. They 
love, especially, light pink and blue ones. Sat- 
urday there was to be a concert in the evening 
and we took fifty pink and blue pajamas to the 

1 Boardman, Mabel T. "Under the Red Cross Flag." 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 8i 

hospital that afternoon. When we came back 
for the concert the nurse told us that the men 
had spent all afternoon choosing which color 
was the most becoming. The lucky fifty were 
so proud when they were carried into the con- 
cert tent that they would hardly let the stretcher 
bearers put the blankets over them, for fear of 
covering up their new clothes. The others, for 
we only had enough for two wards, looked on 
with great envy, as first a pink and then a blue 
stretcher went by, each occupant making him- 
self as conspicuous as possible. One boy of 
eighteen with a fractured hip — ^the baby of the 
ward (though twice the size of any of the men) 
— chose pink and was promptly named Le Bebe 
Rose, much to his embarrassment." ^ 

By the terms of the Geneva Commission, all 
nations are expected to aid any other nation in 
serious distress. The American Red Cross had 
been abroad in times of calamity, of earthquake, 
of flood, and of famine, and now that the great- 
est of all calamities had descended upon all 
Europe, the American Red Cross could not — 
and would not — shirk or evade its duty or 
privilege. "This world calamity," said the 
War Council, "brings to the Red Cross an op- 
portunity to give expression to the best and most 
characteristic side of American life, and to do it 

1 Arnold, Dorothy Treat, in Red Cross Magazine. 



82 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

on a scale called for by the immensity of the 
sorrow and distress of mankind." 

THE RED CROSS IN FOREIGN LANDS 

Of course the foreign countries also sent their 
workers to the scenes of war. The Russian Red 
Cross is a well-organized society, doing exten- 
sive work, and has aided many other countries in 
previous wars. During the early part of the 
recent war, many beautiful stories were told of 
the Empress of Russia and her pretty young 
daughters, dressed in the Red Cross uniform, 
going about in the hospitals caring for the 
wounded soldiers. 

Japan has an especially high standard 
of Red Cross work and workers, and during 
the war sent many thousand nurse-s to care for 
the sick and wounded in Europe. The Japa- 
nese nurses are described as being unusually un- 
selfish and beautiful in their "skillful devotion 
and consecration." 

Italy also has an extensive Red Cross, with a 
large number of hospital trains. It is closely 
associated with the government and has had 
much experience and opportunity to test its own 
efficiency in the numerous disastrous earth- 
quakes and volcanic disturbances from which 
that country suffers. "All the world knows 
what the Red Cross did for Italy. That is a 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 83 

common story now, how, when the great reverse 
came, when all that Italy had been building up 
through weary months was suddenly brought to 
naught, and there came a retreat back over the 
mountains, and before the retreating and ad- 
vancing armies there came hordes of citizens 
dislodged from their homes and farms, sweeping 
down in thousands and thousands, Italy thought 
s*he was alone. But in this particular time, just 
three days after that retreat began there came 
the Red Cross over that same battlefield of 
Solferino, the battlefield where the Red Cross 
had been born — there came a Red Cross flag, 
a Red Cross contingent, the American Red Cross 
sweeping in from Paris, the first evidence Italy 
had that she was not alone ; and Italy took heart 
from that moment." ^ 

The Red Cross of France has had to bear an 
overwhelming burden during the struggle most 
of which has been waged in its own country, and 
has leaned heavily and hard on the cooperation 
of the American workers. The Belgian Red 
Cross became incapacitated for a while after its 
country was overrun, but in time reorganized its 
service and has maintained hospital work 
throughout the war. 

It is the policy of Russia and Germany to 
keep their Red Cross organizations closely as- 

1 Lecture by Dr. Stockton Axson. 



84 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

sociated with their armies and always more or 
less on a war basis even in times of peace. Great 
Britain has maintained her Red Cross as a na- 
tional, not a military, organization, very much 
as we do in the United States. At the outbreak 
of the European War, however, the British Red 
Cross immediately ofifered itself and its services 
to the War Department, issued an appeal similar 
to the ones issued in the United States for men, 
money, and supplies, and met with similar gen- 
erous response. Within almost no time, the 
British Red Cross had units of doctors and 
nurses in Belgium. Then it sent hospitals, sup- 
plies, and personnel to France, with hundreds 
of ambulances. It established inquiry bureaus 
in France, in Malta, and in Egypt, to trace the 
wounded and missing and to identify graves, and 
to report particulars to the families of the 
soldiers. The British conducted seven Red 
Cross campaigns: in France, Serbia, Egypt, 
Gallipoli, Saloniki, Mesopotamia, and in East 
Africa. In addition to hospitals, dispensaries, 
canteens, and rest stations, the British Red Cross 
provided ambulances, model hospital trains, and 
a large fleet of hospital ships, and forwarded 
supplies and staffs of Red Cross workers to the 
almost innumerable countries and nations where 
the British soldiers were sent for duty. 

In some respects the Red Cross of several 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 85 

foreign countries is more fortunate than the 
American society, or perhaps we should say has 
been more fortunate, as the crisis through which 
the world has been passing has changed many 
conditions and has opened the eyes of the Ameri- 
can public more widely to the practical value 
of the Red Cross, while it has warmed the hearts 
more sincerely and touched the pulses of our 
citizens as well as their purses. 

INCREASE IN MEMBERSHIP AND FUNDS 

The first great needs of the Red Cross for its 
new tasks were an increase in membership and 
an increase in funds. At the beginning of the 
World War the American Red Cross numbered 
only 22,000 members, and it had an endowment 
fund of less than a million dollars. An endow- 
ment fund is a permanent fund, only the income 
of which can be used. Japan at the same time 
boasted 1,800,000 men, women, and children in 
its Red Cross membership, with an endowment 
of nearly $13,000,000. No European Red Cross 
has a membership as large as that of Japan. 
The Russian Red Cross had a reserve capital 
of $19,000,000. Several other European socie- 
ties of the Red Cross exceeded the amount of 
funds the United States had for its use. 

Heretofore the American Red Cross had de- 
pended on its membership dues, on a slight in- 



86 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

come resulting from a small percentage on cer- 
tain sales, and especially upon generous annual 
contributions from individuals. When any- 
special relief fund has been needed for use in 
great disasters, money has always poured in 
freely in response to public appeals. Rich and 
poor alike have contributed, and the Red Cross 
reports contain many pathetic little gifts. 
Sometimes in the same mail there have come a 
check for thousands of dollars from some well- 
known wealthy man and another for two or 
three dollars from some small mission or church 
or Sunday School class. Boys and girls send 
gifts of ten cents or "a quarter" from their own 
savings, or make articles for sale, or hold fairs 
and bazaars. 

Persons who have been helped by the Red 
Cross in some time of distress, — it may be they 
were overtaken by fire or flood or famine or 
earthquake, — are most likely to send in volun- 
tary contributions when relief is being extended 
to like sufferers elsewhere. Help has been ex- 
tended to our country in times of great afflictions 
by the Red Cross of other lands as well. When 
the United States was carrying on the Spanish- 
American War, our Red Cross was aided in its 
care of the sick and wounded soldiers by con- 
tributions from the Red Cross of France, Ger- 
many, Austria, and Portugal. Russia also of- 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 87 

fered assistance. The Italian Red Cross offered 
a large contribution for those suffering from the 
Ohio floods, and at the time of the San Francisco 
earthquake and fire, the Japanese Red Cross sent 
to the American Red Cross $146,000 for its relief 
work. 

In December, 1904, the American Red Cross 
had been newly organized and reincorporated, 
and brought under government supervision by 
an Act of Congress signed by President Roose- 
velt, January 5, 1905. The charter provides 
that the President of the United States shall be 
president and that among other members of the 
board, five shall be chosen from the Departments 
of State, Treasury, and Justice, and that a dis- 
bursing officer of the War Department shall 
audit the accounts. The association is the of- 
ficially recognized Volunteer Relief Society of 
the United States and is not under any one of the 
Executive Departments. In time of war its per- 
sonnel is expected to cooperate with the medical 
departments of the Army and Navy. 

APPOINTMENT OF A WAR COUNCIL 

In April, 1917, the United States formally 
entered the World War. The following month 
President Wilson, as president of the American 
Red Cross, appointed a War Council of seven 
members to direct the work of the Red Cross "in 



88 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the extraordinary emergency created by the en- 
trance of the United States into the war." 
[After nearly two years of administration, the 
War Council formally went out of existence, 
March i, 1919, and the management of the Red 
Cross reverted to the Central Committee. Sev- 
eral of the leading members of the War Council 
were elected members of the Executive Com- 
mittee.] 

The first task of the War Council was to raise 
sufficient money to carry on the work awaiting 
the Red Cross. President Wilson issued a proc- 
lamation setting aside one week in June as "Red 
Cross Week," during which "the people of the 
United States will be called upon to give gen- 
erously and in a spirit of patriotic sacrifice for 
the support and maintenance of this work of na- 
tional need." 

Six years previous. President Taft had issued 
a proclamation declaring that "The American 
National Red Cross is the only volunteer society 
now authorized by this Government to render 
aid to its land and naval forces in time of war." 
This decision was to regulate and control war 
relief, so that the government shall have super- 
vision of relief organizations even as it has over 
the military. Now that the unexpected day had 
come when the United States was to send "land 
and naval forces" to war, the government became 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 89 

also responsible for adequate service of the Red 
Cross. 

THE FIRST RED CROSS DRIVE 

The War Council decided to ask the Ameri- 
can people for $100,000,000, apportioning the 
amount to states, cities, and towns throughout 
the country. Then followed such a nation-wide 
campaign as had never before been conducted. 
Every one responded gladly, enthusiastically, 
and nearly every city in the country sent in more 
money than had been named as its share. 
''Over the top" acquired a new meaning, and 
loyal Americans who could not go abroad to 
fight, worked with all their energy to put their 
towns over the top for the Red Cross. 

In addition to these contributions many large 
gifts were made by individuals, by banks and 
business concerns and great corporations, 
amounting to millions of dollars. Other busi- 
ness concerns contributed supplies of almost 
every imaginable kind; buildings and grounds, 
houses and offices, warehouses and docks, were 
offered free of charge or at greatly reduced 
rentals for Red Cross work; while men and 
women of unusual ability and exceptional train- 
ing left important positions to give their time 
and services to the Red Cross. Artists designed 
posters; thousands of workingmen gave a day's 



90 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

pay; a descendant of Betsy Ross made a flag 
that sold for $500; a woman sold a hen and a 
dozen eggs at auction and raised $2002 in that 
way for the Red Cross; an old lady over one 
hundred years of age made many bags and sold 
them for the benefit of the Red Cross ; one morn- 
ing when a director of the campaign came to his 
desk, at headquarters, he found fifty cents in 
silver and a telegraph blank, on which was 
scrawled, "To the Red Cross from a Messenger 
Boy." The little patriot-worker had left it 
there in the night. An Italian sailor, who was at 
one time in the United States Navy, offered the 
Red Cross the interest on his small savings in the 
bank, for the duration of the war. A poor little 
girl came to the Red Cross booth in a local head- 
quarters and placed ten cents upon the table, say- 
ing: "May I become a member of the Red 
Cross?" The booth chairman told the little girl 
that a dollar membership was the smallest they 
had, but that she would gladly make up the dif- 
ference. The child replied: "No, that would 
not do," and went away. In a few moments she 
came back with ninety pennies which she had 
taken from her little bank, saying: "Brother 
has gone to France, and I heard from the Red 
Cross man about the Red Cross following 
brother everywhere he went. I can't go with 
him, but you can, so I want to join." She did 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 91 

her "bit" through the Red Cross. This child's 
conception was great in its simplicity, and it rep- 
resents a real vision of the Red Cross. ^ 

Away up in the northern part of the United 
States is an Indian Agency which boasts a Red 
Cross Auxiliary. Men, women, and children 
all work for the cause. Among the members 
are Mrs. Medicine Owl, Mrs. Last Star, Miss 
Julia Wades in Water, Mrs. Wolf Tail. Mrs. 
Wolf Tail's husband. Chief Wolf Tail, a full- 
blooded Blackfoot, was the largest Indian donor 
to the Red Cross War Fund in June, 1917, and 
he says that the Government may have him for 
anything. ''I am old," he says, "but my spirit 
is good yet." In the winter some of these 
women walked to the weekly meetings across 
frozen lakes when the thermometer registered 
twenty degrees below zero. An Indian couple 
trudged seventeen miles that the woman might 
pay her dollar for membership. "I want to do 
something for my country," said she. 

Membership increased in keeping with the 
contributions and with the burning interest in 
"our boys" who had gone — or were going — to 
offer their lives for the liberty of mankind. In 
May, 19 17, before the appointment of the War 
Council, the American Red Cross had 486,194 
members and 562 chapters. Six months later 

'^Red Cross Bulletin. 



92 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

there were more than 5,000,000 members and 
3287 chapters. A second war fund drive was 
held in May, 1918. By the first of August, 
191 8, the organization numbered 20,648,103 
annual members, besides 8,000,000 of the Junior 
Red Cross — a total enrolment of over one-fourth 
the population of the United States. 

NEW ADMINISTRATIVE METHODS 

Activities of the Red Cross so multiplied, its 
membership and number of chapters increased 
so rapidly, that a change became necessary in 
the method of chapter administration. The 
continental portion of the United States was 
divided into thirteen sections: New England, 
Atlantic, Pennsylvania, Potomac, Southern, 
Lake, Central, Mountain, Northwestern, Pa- 
cific, Southwestern, Gulf, and Northern. In 
each of these divisions all operations of the 
chapters are now under the supervision of a 
Division Manager. This officer, a prominent 
business man of high standing in his community, 
volunteered his services in every case and de- 
voted his entire time to the work of the Red 
Cross during the period of the war. At each 
of the Division Headquarters located in large, 
central cities, departments corresponding to 
those at National Headquarters were created, 
each with a chief who is responsible to the Divi- 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 93 

sion Manager, who in turn is responsible to 
the General Manager. Division supply ware- 
houses were used for storage of the raw materials 
used in chapter work and for reception of the 
finished goods made by the chapters in the sev- 
eral divisions. Chapters report directly to Di- 
vision Headquarters and receive their instruc- 
tions and supplies from the Division Manager, 
and officials at National Headquarters deal 
with the chapters through the Division Man- 
agers. 

American Red Cross activities after the be- 
ginning of the war consisted not only in relief 
work.through the distribution of funds contrib- 
uted by the American people, but in directing 
the efforts of Americans scattered throughout the 
world in their desire to assist in the great work 
for humanity. 

The War Council, viewing the Red Cross 
primarily as the mobilized heart and spirit of 
the American people, sought to organize not 
alone the efforts of the men, women and children 
inside the United States, but to organize relief 
activities of American citizens throughout the 
world; in other words, to enable American citi- 
zens exiled perhaps in foreign lands to come 
home in a sense through the Red Cross and to 
help win the war or help relieve the sufferings 
incident to the war. The War Council's state- 
ment follows: 



94 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

To enroll and classify properly the thousands within the 
borders of the United States, who at the beginning of the 
war desired to become members of the American Red Cross 
and to organize them for the greatest possible efficiency, the 
United States was divided into thirteen sections, or divi- 
sions. The work was done as rapidly as possible, but long 
before the organization was brought to a point of perfec- 
tion, it was discovered that all the Americans who wished 
to take part in this work for humanity did not reside within 
the geographical limits of the republic. Requests for 
membership began to pour in from distant lands in every 
part of the globe. These requests were so insistent that 
it was determined to increase the number of divisions, and 
so the Insular and Foreign Division, known as the Four- 
teenth Division, was organized November, 19 17." ^ 

''The Fourteenth Territorial Division of the 
Red Cross was formed in answer to the insistent 
demand from the four corners of the earth for 
recognition of Americans living from one end 
of the world to the other, and with the forma- 
tion of this division and the sound of the Red 
Cross call to colors ringing round the world, 
responses came from Alaska to Argentina, from 
the West Indies to the East Indies, wherever 
there is an embassy or a legation, or a consular 
office, or an American counting house, or ranch 
or mine." ^ 

The Fourteenth Division, when but a year 

1 American Red Cross Bulletin. 

2 Chapman, Dr. F. M., in "What Every American Should Know 
about the War." George H. Doran Company, 1918. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 95 

old, had nearly 150 chapters and branches. In 
its membership are included South America, 
Central America, the West Indies (Cuba, Porto 
Rico, Santo Domingo), Hawaii, the Philip- 
pines, Japan, China, and Red Cross chapters in 
neutral Europe, that is, in Spain, Portugal, 
Sweden, and Switzerland, and in Siberia. So 
efficiently has the Fourteenth Division answered 
the call and met the needs of its members; so 
wonderfully has it guided activities in foreign 
lands; so practically has it accomplished that for 
which it was organized, casting the inspiring 
shadow of the Red Cross everywhere, that Presi- 
dent Wilson, in a letter to Chairman Henry P. 
Davison, of the War Council, said of its ac- 
complishments : 

"It is a remarkable story, and I share with you 
the deepest satisfaction for what these comrades 
of ours scattered throughout the world have 
done." 

SPIRIT OF HELPFULNESS AWAKENED 

Thus Americans all over the world have been 
assisting in this great work for humanity, and 
the American Red Cross has become, not only 
a factor in relieving distressed humanity, but 
in awakening a sentiment of helpfulness in all 
quarters of the globe. Through the Fourteenth 
Division, Americans in foreign lands have been 



96 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

kept in constant touch with the ideals of Amer- 
icanism, and have been given opportunity for 
service in a truly noble cause. 

"Red Cross proceeded along the principle of 
helpfulness, to multiply the helpfulness of each 
by the helpfulness of all, and thereby make a 
great, efficient organization. Red Cross takes 
the man of business, the man of big business, and 
puts him into service. He goes into this serv- 
ice with all of his old-time zest and all of his 
old-time ingenuity, and much of his old-time 
method of business, but with a new-time pur- 
pose, with the purpose, not of making money, 
but with the purpose of spending and being 
spent. There is nothing more lovely, I think, 
in Red Cross than this transformation of the 
American business man from a money-making 
creature into a creature who is growing daily 
poorer with great enthusiasm, for the purpose of 
enriching mankind. 

"It takes the woman with her ability in house- 
hold service, with her ability in handiwork, and 
sets her to work not only for her family but for 
the nation. Again, it takes the trained nurse, 
and puts her into the service of nations. One 
of the first lessons the girls of America had to 
learn was that they could not go to France to 
nurse sick soldiers. Surely a suffering soldier 
needs the touch of a woman's hand on his brow. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 97 

Yes, but of a trained hand. I heard a very wise 
speech made by a trained nurse in which she 
was telling her audience that aside from all the 
technical training, the trained nurse must have 
• — she must have — psychological training, the 
training of impersonalism, so that she will have 
an entirely impersonal attitude toward disease 
and toward the patient. She must be sympa- 
thetic, but not so sympathetic that she is un- 
nerved by suffering, and by blood; she must be 
so impersonal that the patient never becomes 
anything to her except a suffering mortal that 
needs her scientific care. This Red Cross of 
ours is nothing whatsoever except the modern 
principles of social service applied to war. 
That is what the Red Cross is, a thoroughly 
modern thing. Red Cross was born in the nine- 
teenth century, a century which gave birth to 
all forms of social service. This Red Cross 
is only one manifestation among many of the 
realization that society has come to of its re- 
sponsibility for individuals, whether working in 
the factory, or mine, or on the battlefield." ^ 

By 1919, the Red Cross membership had 
grown to 22,000,000, the endowment fund had 
reached about $2,000,000, and subscriptions to 
the amount of $181,616,491.61 were made. The 
method of organization for the Red Cross 

1 Lecture by Dr. Stockton Axson. 



98 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

drives has been for the National Headquarters 
to lay out a general policy to be adopted 
throughout all sections of the country. Each 
division then forms an organization to conduct 
the drive, and each chapter in turn appoints 
different men, not closely associated with the 
office, to carry out the work for the chapter. In 
this way it was able to organize for the War 
Fund Drive in practically every community 
throughout the country. 

Each drive was an overwhelming success, not 
only as to the amount of money raised, but be- 
cause of the spirit shown throughout the na- 
tion. Contributions came from millions of 
wage earners and poor people who made real 
sacrifices that they might be able to give. The 
gratifying response to the second drive was re- 
garded among other things as a tribute to the 
satisfactory way in which the Red Cross Com- 
missions abroad had performed their tasks. 
"This outpouring of generosity in material 
things," commented the War Council, "has been 
accompanied by a spontaneity in the giving, by 
an enthusiasm and devotion in the doing, which, 
after all, are greater and bigger than could be 
anything measured in terms of time or dollars. 
It has been because of this spirit which has per- 
vaded all American Red Cross effort that the 
aged governor of one of the stricken and bat- 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 99 

tered provinces of France states that, though 
France had long known of America's greatness, 
strength, and enterprise, it remained for the 
American Red Cross in this war to reveal Amer- 
ica's heart." By the first of January, 1919, the 
War Council reported that the American Red 
Cross had working in France "upwards of 5000 
Americans — a vivid contrast to the little group 
of 18 men and women, who as the first Red 
Cross Commission to France sailed about June 
I, 1917, to initiate our efforts in Europe." 

THE woman's bureau 

In July, 1 917, the Woman's Bureau of the 
Red Cross was organized, to meet the new calls 
arising from the needs of the American men 
now or soon to be in service. Red Cross agents 
were sent to France to report especially as to 
the demands of the doctors and others already 
engaged in relief work, and to confer with 
authorities from the British, Canadian, and 
French Red Cross. Half a million circulars 
were issued giving simple directions for knit- 
ting a "set of fours," bed socks, an aviator's 
helmet, hot water bottle cover, and washcloth. 
Directions were sent out for making hospital 
garments, bath robes, bed shirts, operating gar- 
ments and masks, undershirts and drawers, hot 
water and ice bag covers. Needs, styles, sizes, 



100 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

materials, and colors varied in the articles re- 
quired for the American men from those sent 
to the French and Belgians. Four days after 
the formal declaration of war, the Red Cross an- 
nounced that conduits had been constructed for 
leading this supply of hospital equipment and of 
comforts for the enlisted men, from even the re- 
motest village, by the shortest possible route, 
to the precise place where it was most needed. 
Millions of women all over the country gave 
much time in chapter workrooms or at home, to 
service both for the soldiers and for civilians. 
The American Red Cross has taken care of many 
civilian disasters. When the immediate calam- 
ity was over the Red Cross would carry further 
the civilian work, so that when the war broke 
out the War Council considered the duty of the 
American Red Cross should not be alone to our 
armed forces and those by whose side we were 
fighting abroad, but equally to the civilian popu- 
lation in the countries of our Allies and to the 
families of our own soldiers and sailors. We 
have developed this organization with the idea 
of meeting the tremendous responsibilities that 
we all feel the civilians of this country would 
wish us to meet for those who have suffered 
abroad.^ Whereas before we entered the war a 
few hundred thousand women were engaged in 

1 Address by Eliot Wadsworth. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE loi 

chapter production work, and but little attempt 
had been made to standardize the articles sent 
abroad, as soon as the war became really our 
own affair, the number of volunteer workers 
doubled in a few weeks and kept on increasing 
until, it is estimated, there were at least 8,000,000 
women making Red Cross articles. 

"Hurry calls" came every now and then, and 
every one worked more rapidly and more con- 
stantly than ever. At one time there was a call 
for 300,000 separate surgical dressings. One 
small group of chapters alone provided enough 
of such dressings for use on 188 battleships and 
destroyers. Again came a cable from the head 
of the Red Cross Commission in France to "be- 
gin shipping at once one and a half million each, 
knitted mufflers, sweaters, socks, and wristlets." 
Then every pair of knitting needles in the whole 
blessed land set to work — if indeed there were 
any idle before! Schoolgirls knitted as they 
walked down the street to school, others knitted 
in the cars; women at concerts and lectures or in 
church knitted as they listened; every woman 
and girl wore a knitting bag on her arm. 

"Sometimes when I see those busy flashing 
knitting needles I want to sit down by the lady 
and ask, 'Now just what do we understand all 
of this is about? What is it for? What is 
the meaning of it, what is the philosophy of it 



I02 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

all?' That knitted garment means something 
more than material and workmanship. It is a 
symbol. It is a symbol of a unified purpose of 
all the country. 

"You women who work for Red Cross are 
working for something very tangible. In many 
instances you are working for actual soldier and 
sailor lads. You are working that an actual 
Sammy's feet may be warm in the trench, and 
that an actual Jack's throat may be shrouded 
from the cutting winds that sweep across the 
sea, that Sammy and Jack may be more com- 
fortable in trench and on ship, in march and in 
camp, on battleship and cruiser, in airplane and 
submarine — working for the welfare of the sol- 
dier who is fighting our battles. 

"At the opening of the war there were many 
women who wanted to make special garments 
or special relief supplies for some special boy 
in the army, or for the boys*of their own town. 
They wanted Red Cross to see to it that their 
boy got this particular garment. Sometimes 
they applied to the Secretary of War to make it 
his business to see to that. In some instances I 
think the President was approached on it. As 
time went on the impracticability of this whole 
thing was seen, and the feeling came that the 
army must be worked for as a whole, that even 
though her garments did not reach her boy, 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 103 

it reached the boy of some other woman, and 
that this other woman's garments might reach 
her boy. One woman's service is very like an- 
other woman's service, and we are all working 
together in this common cause. I notice that 
the mother of boys generally loves all boys, and 
I notice that boys seem to recognize the mother 
of boys. I was in a railway train recently, and 
a young soldier came in and said to some sol- 
diers just in front of me: 'There's a soldier's 
mother back in that coach at the rear. . You go 
back and talk to her. A soldier's mother likes 
to talk to soldiers.' There is a camaraderie be- 
tween mothers of soldiers somewhat like the 
camaraderie of the regiment itself. And to you 
your soldier boy is always just a boy. He may 
be the champion pugilist of the ship, or of the 
regiment. He may have grown gray in serv- 
ice, but to you he is just a boy, your boy. 
And there is another boy you are working for, 
though you haven't seen him, you don't know 
him — the American soldier at large. You are 
building better than you know, perhaps. You 
are assisting in keeping those soldiers in what is 
called good morale, keeping them at fighting 
edge. 

"It is very important, this keeping up of 
morale. Take again your sweater as a symbol. 
It is a symbol. Materially it warms the lad's 



I04 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

body, metaphysically it warms the lad's spirit 
with the thought that the women of the world 
are with him in this grim adventure on which 
he has embarked. God pity the army that has 
got to fight without the knowledge that the 
women at home are in sympathy with the thing 
that the army is doing." ^ 

RED CROSS STATISTICS 

Janet's Uncle James has a mind for statistics, 
and he has figured out several rather impressive 
statements in connection with the division with 
which he is associated. He says that merely one 
order received by his division produced two 
and one-half carloads of pajamas. Another 
order called for 715,000 pairs of socks. He 
says the yarn required would weigh 178,750 
pounds, and when packed for shipment the socks 
required 1240 standard cases and filled eight 
cars. 

In one warehouse in one division there were 
received between May, 191 7, and February, 191 9 
(less than two years), 1,988,942 knitted articles 
for soldiers. Uncle James has figured it out 
that "the yarn required to make these articles, 
if stretched out in a single strand, would reach 
84 per cent of the distance from the earth to 
the moon, or would circle the earth at the equa- 

1 Lecture by Dr. Stockton Axson. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 105 

tor eight times. It is equal to 200,622 miles. 
In making these articles, 41,937,606,390 stitches 
were required. If ten women had started knit- 
ting in the year 1653 and had knitted at the rate 
of thirty stitches per minute without stopping, 
they would have completed the work on Feb- 
ruary I, 1919." 

During one week, seventy miles of black 
sateen, one yard wide, were cut into children's 
pinafores by the women of only one division. 
There were sent to France, Syria, and Jerusalem, 
for refugees, 883,000 yards of uncut cloth. 
This amount of material is sufficient to cover 
a table two feet wide extending from New York 
to Jacksonville, Florida. 

On one order in one division were produced 
12,000,000 layettes, calling for 432,000 pieces, 
and requiring 220,500 yards of material. To 
inspect and wrap these articles would take fif- 
teen women twenty-five days, working eight 
hours daily. For packing these articles 700 
cases were required. If this number of cases 
were stacked on end, they would make ten 
columns, each as high as Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment. 

The number of refugee garments allotted to 
the chapters of one division during December, 
1918, and January, 1919, to be finished during 
January and February, 1919, was 402,463, re- 



io6 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

quiring 1,203,315 yards of material. "If this 
material, which is a yard wide, were stretched 
out on the highway," says Uncle James, "and 
a person started in an automobile and rode at a 
speed of twenty miles an hour, it would take 
from 9 o'clock Monday morning until 7 o'clock 
Tuesday evening to ride from one end of the 
material to the other. The material would 
reach from Boston to New York three times." 
According to the same authority: "Buttons 
used on refugee garments in one division, from 
December i, 1918, to February i, 1919, if laid 
out in a row on the ground would reach four- 
teen miles. If stacked, they would make a 
column reaching as high as the top of Mt. 
Monadnock, if Mt. Monadnock were placed on 
top of Mt. Washington. It would take ten 
people four days of constant work to pick up 
these buttons at the rate of thirty a minute." 

grandmother's medal 

"Grandmother, you're wanted up at the Red 
Cross rooms," said Janet, as she burst excitedly 
into the living room one Saturday noon, after 
having given two hours of her holiday to "do- 
ing her bit" on some Junior Auxiliary work at 
the school-house. "Oh, I'm so proud of you, 
Grandmother, dear! Can't you go up this 
afternoon and get it?" 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 107 

"Get what?" asked Grandmother, startled 
and perplexed at Janet's vehemence. 

"Why, your medal!" 

"Medal? For what?" queried Grandmother, 
more puzzled than ever. She was deeply inter- 
ested in the war, following the march of the 
armies as shown in the newspapers from day to 
day, knowing every move on each side, every 
geographical name and all the names of the 
military and civil leaders. Her idea of a medal 
was an Iron Cross from the Kaiser or a Dis- 
tinguished Service Medal from the United 
States. Now, familiar as Grandmother was 
with the war map of Europe and often as she 
had traveled the battlefields in imagination, she 
was quite sure she had not done any deed of 
heroism that should win a decoration! When 
she said something like this to Janet's mother, 
however, she was told that the Red Cross 
thought she had done something deserving a 
decoration and she was expected to come to the 
local headquarters that afternoon if possible. 

Never was any hero of the battlefield prouder 
of his Distinguished Service Medal than is 
Grandmother of her Red Cross service badge 
on its blue ribbon, which she was awarded for 
Having worked 1600 hours and having knit 135 
articles. And Grandmother is close on to four- 
score years of age. 



io8 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

COMFORT KITS 

"Comfort kits" were popular with young 
girls. These were made at the expense of the 
worker and were filled with such articles as 
she wished to include. Thousands were made 
and their pockets filled with soap, washcloths, 
shaving articles, pipe and tobacco, handker- 
chiefs, writing material, and games. The kits 
were made of khaki cloth according to a certain 
type of pattern and each had an American flag 
on the outside. Hospital bags, also, were a 
popular gift. In these the hospital patient 
found a place to keep his own treasures in the 
way of letters and keepsakes. As Christmas 
approached, women and girls in all the Amer- 
ican homes where "our boys" would be missed, 
— and in many other homes which had no boys 
to give to their country and therefore felt all 
the more anxiety to contribute to the comfort 
of the sons and brothers of others — prepared Red 
Cross Christmas packages of candy and choco- 
late and tobacco and little holiday gifts, hoping 
that not a single American soldier away on duty 
would fail to receive at least one token of re- 
membrance. 

THE JUNIOR RED CROSS 

Girls and boys did all sorts of things to help 
the Red Cross during the war. Oftentimes 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 109 

girl'S and boys worked together or cooperated 
in one line of work. The boys of an orphan 
asylum, for example, picked currants for the 
Red Cross. The cooking class in a school in a 
near-by city made the berries into jam and put 
them up in jars and glasses. Boys in the car- 
pentry department packed the fruit in cases, 
ready to be shipped to France for use in the hos- 
pitals. 

When stories such as these reached the ears 
of the Red Cross officials who were high in 
authority, they suggested a new idea. "Why 
should not the boys and girls of America have 
an auxiliary all their own?" asked a very wise 
and appreciative and influential "Red Crosser." 
"Why shouldn't they?" echoed mothers and 
fathers and teachers all over the land. "Why 
shouldn't they?" asked President Wilson, when 
he heard about it; "and furthermore why don't 
they?" So a conference was called in Wash- 
ington and President Wilson issued a procla- 
mation in September, 1917, a trifle less than six 
months after the country entered the war, and 
less than five months after the War Council was 
appointed, in which he said : 

"The President of the United States is also 
president of the American Red Cross. It is 
from these offices joined in one that I write you 
a word of greeting at this time when so many 
of you are beginning the school year. 



no GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

*'The American Red Cross has just prepared 
a Junior Membership with School Activities 
in which every pupil in the United States can 
find a chance to serve our country. The school 
is the natural center of your life. Through it 
you can best work in the great cause of freedom 
to which we have all pledged ourselves. 

"Our Junior Red Cross will bring to you op- 
portunities of service to your community and 
to other communities all over the world and 
guide your service with high and religious 
ideals. It will teach you how to save in order 
that suffering children elsewhere may have a 
chance to live. It will teach you how to pre- 
pare some of the supplies which wounded sol- 
diers and homeless families lack. It will send 
to you through the Red Cross bulletins the 
thrilling stories of relief and rescue. And best 
of all, more perfectly than through any of your 
other school lessons, you will learn by doing 
those kind things under your teacher's direction 
to be the future good citizens of this great coun- 
try which we all love. 

"And I commend to all school teachers in the 
country the simple plan which the American 
Red Cross has worked out to provide for your 
cooperation, knowing as I do that school chil- 
dren will give their best service under the direct 
guidance and instruction of their teachers. Is 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE iii 

not this perhaps the chance for which you have 
been looking to give your time and efiforts in 
some measure to meet our national needs?" 

A w^ide and varied program is offered the 
young people of the United States, as the Junior 
Red Cross is supposed to be active in many direc- 
tions; its members are expected to take part in 
relief and v^elfare vs^ork, to respond t-o all pa- 
triotic appeals, as far as they are able and in 
v^hat ways they are able, and thus permanently 
to be enlisted among the creative forces of good 
citizenship. "The training of mind and hand 
which must precede effective concerted action 
for community relief and betterment is the goal 
of the Red Cross, no less than the care of the 
sick and wounded," say the directors. "Such 
training involves all the duties of citizenship." 
Fathers and brothers had gone into the war be- 
cause they wanted to make the world safe for 
boys and girls. And the boys and girls — many 
of them — realized this, and were anxious to do 
their part, too. The Junior Red Cross move- 
ment emphasizes the idea of service, and is in- 
tended to train boys and girls systematically — 
as it has the older men and women — how to serve 
their nation and the world intelligently and ef- 
ficiently. 

Any one who knows much about girls and 
boys — that is, "worth while" girls and boys — 



112 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

knows that they like to help ; and, indeed, even 
girls and boys who perhaps may have been 
thought to be not "worth while" will usually re- 
veal this one bright gem of helpfulness when 
just the right occasion or appeal comes to them. 
The girls and boys of the United States showed 
by their volunteer service in the early days of 
the war that their hearts were in the right place. 
The Red Cross recognized the fact, and said: — 
"Boys and girls have always had to learn the 
'three R's' in school. Why not let the schools 
also teach them the use of the 'three H's,' Heart, 
Head, and Hands? Their hearts have an- 
swered the call, let us train the heads to use 
the hands effectively." 

Young people responded in great numbers all 
over the country. In the first four months 
860,741 girls and boys were enrolled in the 
Junior Auxiliary; by the summer of 1919 there 
were 10,000,000 members. 

Boys made knitting needles for the girls to 
use in the schools and for the Red Cross ; splints ^ 
for the surgeons to use in the hospitals "over 
there"; packing boxes to carry supplies to 
France; and they have made chairs, tables, 
desks, and other furniture for our returned con- 
valescent soldiers. Girls made rugs and quilts 

1 All the splints used in all our hospitals in France, both of the 
Army and the Red Cross, came from the Red Cross. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 113 

for the hospitals, sewed on aprons, dresses, and 
underwear for French and Belgian children and 
their mothers. On summer holidays boys and 
girls often make a chain of daisies many feet 
long; could any daisy chain be more beautiful 
in its symbolism than that formed by the Junior 
Red Cross, reaching from some schoolroom in 
the United States — perhaps in a great city, per- 
haps in a far-away country village — across the 
ocean to a town of ruin and desolation in France; 
reaching from a roomful of well-dressed, well- 
fed, happy, healthy American children, across 
the ocean to a hut or a shelter or an institution 
where are huddled groups of half-starved, half- 
clad, and wholly frightened children? 

President MacCracken of Vassar College, di- 
rector of Junior Membership, comments on 
"how garments made by Juniors in some town 
in Montana or Louisiana pass quickly across the 
continent to the Atlantic coast, over the sea to 
France, and finally into some desolated village 
where the war refugees are striving to make a 
home," and adds, "It must mean a great deal 
to an American schoolboy to know that the pack- 
ing box made by him will carry supplies to 
France and will there be split up and used for 
shelves in a hospital; or to an American school- 
girl to know that the comfort of a French child 
may depend on how well she cuts her cloth and 
takes her stitches." 



114 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

The cutting and stitching of those "refugee 
garments" could be called a joy only because 
of the loving spirit which consecrated the serv- 
ice. In almost every instance the garments 
w^ere painfully ugly! Or so it seemed to the 
womankind of America. There was much re- 
monstrance from all quarters at first over the 
cut and color and material of the garments sent 
across. It was, indeed, for some time the occa- 
sion of much perplexity to those in charge of 
that department of Red Cross endeavor. The 
sensible and reasonable conclusion was that the 
American Red Cross should send to those dis- 
tressed French and Belgian sisters, not the style 
of garments worn by American women and chil- 
dren, but the kind of clothing the French and 
Belgian people were accustomed to wear; and 
furthermore, the kind of clothing adapted to 
their condition and situation. 

French peasants, it was found, did not desire 
bright colors; especially under war conditions, 
gay apparel seemed unsuitable and only added 
to their unhappiness. They enjoyed wearing 
only garments made like those they had been 
used to, and an unfamiliar style set their already 
frenzied nerves into a panic. If articles of 
clothing were sent to children and they proved 
to be of a style or fit not familiar, the mothers 
would remake them, no matter how tired or 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 115 

feeble the women were. Material had to be 
durable and sewed very securely, as the peasants 
wash their clothes by rubbing between stones 
at the river bank. They were able to get al- 
most no soap during war times and were al- 
lowed to have hot water only once a week. 

The Junior Red Cross turned out thousands of 
socks, sweaters, helmets, and wristlets, bandages, 
comfort kits, and scrapbooks. In six weeks, 
3000 girls of a certain state turned in 15,000 ar- 
ticles which were accepted by the Red Cross. 
The articles were made in the classrooms by 
giving on an average one hour a week for six 
weeks. Credit was given the girls in their 
school record, as Red Cross work was recog- 
nized as a part of the vocational or manual arts 
program. Several hundred crippled girls and 
boys spent many hours of their days in school 
knitting mufflers and sweaters and wristlets, 
and squares of woolen blankets for the soldiers. 
In the poorer parts of great cities there were 
American children of foreign-born parents, 
denying themselves all pleasure and in many 
cases almost the necessities of life, to give money 
to the Red Cross to help their relatives and 
friends in the land of their forefathers. There 
were young girls who worked all day in depart- 
ment stores or factories who gave their evenings 
to Red Cross work. There were girls of Rus- 



ii6 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

sian, and Jewish, and Italian, and Chinese 
families, who attended high school or college 
to prepare to earn their own living and who 
not only worked in their leisure hours for the 
Red Cross but interested their mothers to help 
also. And little girls, who were too small to do 
anything else and yet who were eager to be do- 
ing something, were allowed to take the wool in 
Red Cross bags to women who wanted to help 
but who could not leave their homes, and take 
finished articles back to the chapter rooms. 
Boys and girls contributed money toward ambu- 
lances, planted and raised ''war gardens," went 
without candy and soda, and ate little or no 
sugar and wheat bread. 

"Fudge?" said Janet, "fudge? I should say 
not, during the war!" and she turned on her 
brother scornfully and left the room. Of 
course, her brother had mentioned fudge merely 
to tease, for it had been the supreme test of her 
patriotism to give up making her favorite 
candy. Janet's brother's particular war ac- 
tivity was in the line of "thrift." He not only 
earned and saved money for Thrift Stamps, but 
he saved tin foil, and old newspapers, and card- 
board, and bottles, and string, and only a genu- 
ine "Red Crosser" could enumerate the various 
kinds of "junk" Bill collected and disposed of in 
different ways for the Red Cross. Janet said 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 117 

she was "bound to be orderly in spite of her- 
self, for she didn't dare leave a thing lying 
around, for she knew she'd never find it again; 
Bill would have added it to his junk collection." 

SOCIAL SERVICE OF THE JUNIOR AUXILIARY 

Of course the Red Cross encourages and co- 
operates with all lines of civic progress and com- 
munity enterprise. So it naturally follows that 
members of the Junior Red Cross will excel in 
habits of obedience, orderliness, truthfulness, 
fair play, honesty, courage, self-control, and all 
those virtues the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and 
Campfire Girls have been practising. High 
school girls and boys will be encouraged to study 
into social problems, immigration, a living wage, 
conservation, and all that sort of thing that will 
make the members of the Junior Red Cross valu- 
able members of the community. 

Teamwork — ^^that is the great underlying idea 
of the Red Cross. Not each man or each town 
or each nation for itself, but each for all, with 
all, and through all. Of course, it is for "Amer- 
ica First," but it is for America first in service 
to the whole world as well as first in the hearts 
of its local people. The Red Cross is to make 
for Americanization. As it is in the grown-up 
auxiliaries and chapters and divisions, so it is in 
the Junior Auxiliary — every one is welcome. 



ii8 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

There is no question asked as to a person's race, 
or creed, or color, or condition; all that is asked 
is, do you want to join hands with everybody 
else to serve everybody else? 

During the war, many men who, for some 
reason or other, could not be taken into the army 
or allowed to go across as soldiers, joined the 
several bodies of social, or religious, or philan- 
thropic workers who were able to care for the 
special or religious needs of the "boys." There 
were still others who because of age or health 
or family responsibilities could not leave home. 
Many of this class of patriots formed what was 
termed the "Home Guard." Their duty it was 
to protect and defend the homes and families in 
their own cities or towns or villages here in the 
United States. 

Two branches of service also belong to the 
Red Cross. While its first duty is to assist the 
army and navy authorities in every way in which 
it has been called upon by them to supplement 
their efforts in caring for the fighting men at 
the front or on their way to and from the front, 
the majority of Red Cross members cannot go 
to the battlefield, are not trained or fitted for that 
sort of work, and they are relied upon as a 
kind of Red Cross Home Guard. Here is 
where the Junior Red Cross is of great value, 
protecting and defending those at home against 
disease and accident. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 119 

It is pointed out by those directing the Junior 
Auxiliary, that while boys and girls will not be 
able to help in the care of the sick and wounded, 
there are other kinds of nursing which they can 
do. "Florence Nightingale long ago made the 
distinction between 'health-nursing' and 'sick- 
nursing.' In 'health-nursing' she included all 
those activities which make for the health of the 
individual, the family, and the community — 
everything which helps to prevent illness, to 
conserve and foster human life, and to build up a 
stronger and better race. 

"Something of this spirit and these ideals 
must inspire the boys and girls who are to help 
in conserving the strength and health of our com- 
ing generation of citizens. They should have a 
special concern in the activities which center 
around the care of young children. The girls 
especially might learn all the simpler, more fun- 
damental things about the ordinary care of 
babies and small children, and might be able to 
assist in this work in summer camps and day 
nurseries as well as in their own homes and 
the homes of friends and neighbors. Girls of 
twelve to sixteen can be very useful here, and 
between sixteen and eighteen they would be 
able to take a good deal of responsibility in the 
care of normal, healthy children. We feel that 
they can also do much in educating the older 



I20 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

people, especially those of our foreign-born 
population, in the better standards of infant 
care, and thus prove an important factor in the 
Americanization program." ^ 

Thousands of American babies and good 
American citizens might be saved each year from 
maiming and crippling and death, if those near 
by knew how to give assistance when emergen- 
cies arise or accidents occur. It has been shown 
by investigation, that three out of every five in- 
juries occurring to school children might be pre- 
vented by simple precautions. The Red Cross, 
through its First Aid Division, not only in- 
structs how to act in times of accident, emer- 
gency, or illness, but seeks to change careless 
girls and boys into careful girls and boys by 
education and intelligent caution constantly ex- 
ercised. 

Because the thought of maimed or crippled 
or sick or unhappy children is so particularly 
pathetic and appeals so strongly and so quickly 
to our sympathies, and because so much Red 
Cross work in Europe has been done among these 
pitiful little innocent sufferers, American boys 
and girls have been quick to become interested 
to do all they could to show their friendliness. 
Wherever the German army went, wherever bat- 
tles were fought, or wherever country was 

1 Address by Isabelle M. Stewart. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 121 

marched across, there were left French families 
without homes, money, furniture, or clothing. 
Many Belgian homes were wrecked in the same 
way; and Armenian children have been left to 
starve after their people suffered torture and 
massacre. To such families the Red Cross sent 
food, clothes, blankets, beds, mattresses, kitchen 
utensils, stoves, garden tools, farm machines, and 
numberless other things to help them start life 
anew. 

CIVILIAN RELIEF ABROAD 

In August, 1917, the National Red Cross or- 
ganized special work for the women and chil- 
dren of France under the Children's Bureau of 
the Department of Civil Affairs in France. 
Over there the Red Cross is divided into two de- 
partments, the department of military and the 
department of civil affairs. Under the tatter 
department are included sub-departments 
:alled Bureaus, for the care of children, refugees, 
tubercular patients, and others needing help. 
Dispensaries were located as a sort of health cen- 
ter in Paris and vicinity. One of the first 
"units" to go to France for this ''civilian relief," 
as it is called, was composed of young women 
from Smith College, associated with the Amer- 
ican Fund for French Wounded and cooperat- 
ing with the Red Cross. These "units" took 



122 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

charge of several villages — the Smith girls had 
ten of these to supervise — and they restored 
houses so that the families could live in them 
again, distributed chickens and rabbits among 
the peasants, and bought farming implements 
and tools for laborers so that men and women 
and boys and girls could get to work again. 
Women and children had much of the work to 
do, because only the men who were too old or 
too feeble and the boys who were too young to 
go to war were left in the villages. Classes in 
carpentry were opened for boys, and in sewing 
and housekeeping for girls. 

Doctors and nurses went across the ocean par- 
ticularly to look after the sick and neglected or 
pitifully orphaned and abandoned children and 
babies. They were assigned to duty at all the 
points of greatest need in France, and groups of 
two or three were stationed in leading hospitals 
from which they went out on educational work 
from house to house, in cities and in country dis- 
tricts, telling the mothers how to take better care 
of their babies and children, and especially 
how to prevent tubercular infection, which is 
particularly liable to follow trench warfare. 
Twenty-six thousand children were given medi- 
cal attendance in France in one month. The 
slogan was: "Visit Every Baby in France." 
In order to accomplish this, some unique 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 123 

methods were introduced. For example, there 
was the "traveling shower bath." In some re- 
gions where it was impossible to establish per- 
manent dispensaries, and where some of the chil- 
dren had gone unwashed since the previous win- 
ter, the car with the shower bath splashed soap 
and water promiscuously and medical aid wher- 
ever it was needed. One of the nurses sent the 
following description: 

"On one side of the camionette is a seat large 
enough to accommodate a nurse and a sick child. 
Over their heads is a rack for medicines and in- 
strument bags, and opposite is a rack for gauze 
and bandages. On the floor is the shower bath 
apparatus, of jointed wood and rubber and shiny 
polished nickel to ca-tch the children's eyes. 
Warm water is poured into a wooden tub. The 
chil-d sits in the tub and while the doctor pumps 
water through the shower the nurse scrubs. As 
the child whitens, the water blackens. At the 
finish the rubber shower tube is suddenly shifted 
into a bucket of fresh cold water and the bath 
ends with an unexpected douche." 

American specialists went over to confer with 
French specialists. They visited French fami- 
lies and gave their attendance upon the sick free 
of charge. When at the end of a visit the peo- 
ple would ask what they should pay, and were 
told that the Red Cross does not take payment, 



124 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

that its work was a slight token of friendship, 
they would show surprise, protest a little, and 
then give most genuine thanks. 

Wholly unforeseen emergencies arose after the 
Red Cross helpers had reached France and had 
begun their service for the children. One day 
telegrams were received at the Red Cross head- 
quarters in Paris stating that in a certain town 
where the Germans had been exploding gas 
bombs, the children were in peculiar danger, 
as the gas masks worn by older people did not 
protect the little ones. Next day, eight Red 
Cross workers arrived. They found all the 
small children of the town herded together in 
dirty sheds. Twenty-one of the children were 
under one year old and the rest were under eight 
years. Within two days the children had been 
given fresh clothing, clean barracks to live in, 
and good, nourishing food ; those who were sick 
were put to bed and given proper care. The 
Red Cross then put up new buildings with com- 
fortable beds and shower baths, and with equip- 
ment for school and for games, where at least 
five hundred children could be accommodated, 
protected, taught, and made happy. 

In the early part of the war, refugees by the 
thousands poured into Paris. Margaret, who 
was serving in a Red Cross dispensary in Paris, 
went to the railroad station, in company with 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 125 

other Red Cross workers, one night when a call 
came for special helpers. The main part of the 
great station was OGCupied by the British Red 
Cross canteen which looked after feeding and 
assisting soldiers passing through the city or 
transferring at the station for other trains. 
There was no room for the thousands of refu- 
gees, mostly frenzied women and helpless chil- 
dren, who were soon expected to pour into the 
station. So the Red Cross "got busy" and took 
possession of the basement of the station. Beds 
and cots were put up around the sides of the 
room; counters were set up and supplied with 
stocks of food, and within twenty-four hours of 
the first notice received there were more or less 
hospitable quarters into which to usher those 
homeless wanderers. Among them were old 
men and women so weak with exhaustion and 
excitement and distress of body and mind that 
they were hardly able to crawl; there were crip- 
ples who had no wheel chairs to travel in, but 
were wheeled in baby carriages; and children, 
hundreds of them, all dirty and tired. Almost 
every family brought one or more of the family 
pets. These varied from birds to hedgehogs 
tied by a string! Here would come an old 
woman leading a big white goose, there one with 
a flock of hens, another with a goat, and one girl 
brought the house cat and a family of kittens 



126 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

born on the train. Dogs accompanied the men 
and boys, and now and then a saucy parrot would 
scream out a greeting from its cage. 

Perhaps it was laughable. Yet it was still 
more pathetic, and seldom would you find a 
Red Cross helper so unsympathetic as to fail to 
find a bone for Fifi, a saucer of milk for Min- 
nette, a cracker for Cocotte, or some crumbs for 
the hens. For each one of the ''Red Crossers" 
was thinking possibly of some huggable kitten 
or dear dog in his or her home back in New 
England, or away down South in Dixie, or out 
on the Western Plains or among the mountains. 
Never did home seem so dear and so far away 
as when these pitiful bands of refugees looked 
to the American young men and women for care 
and comfort. Each "Red Crosser" was think- 
ing down deep in his or her heart, "Wouldn't 
it be bad enough to be driven from home, to see 
your home going up in flames behind you, with- 
out having to leave Tabby or Towser or Polly 
to burn or to starve or to fall into the clutches 
of the enemy?" 

Many and many an old woman or a little child 
had absolutely refused to leave home — even 
when the enemy were beginning to shell the 
town — unless the goat or the hens could be taken. 
"Leave my hens for the Boche? Never!" ex- 
claimed a frantic peasant woman as she and all 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 127 

the children ran wildly around the yard round- 
ing up the flock. Almost every refugee toted 
a bundle containing some special treasure. 
Feather pillows, feather "pufifs" under which 
they had slept for years, embroidered pillow 
cases or towels; in the heavy bundle carried by 
a woman eighty-two years of age were her best 
China dinner plates which had been given her 
when she was married; and in many and many 
a tiny bundle there was a little China figure of 
the Madonna. 

When trains of refugees arrived in Paris or 
elsewhere, the Red Cross workers, after giving 
the weary travelers something to eat and the ba- 
bies plenty of warm milk to drink, talked with 
each family in an attempt to find in some safe 
part of the country friends to whom they might 
be sent. Telegrams flew hither and thither; 
some families or individuals would be so for- 
tunate as to find on arrival a letter waiting for 
them and advising them how to communicate 
with their friends. Those for whom no more in- 
timate arrangements could be made, were sent 
by train to cantonments for refugees in southern 
France. 

This work for refugees constituted one of the 
most important branches of service undertaken 
by the Red Cross in France and Belgium. Of 
these desolate people a report said, "They looked 



128 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

to the Red Cross for everything — food, shelter, 
clothing. They had the earth under them and 
the sky above them, and the American Red Cross 
for a friend — that was all." Great numbers of 
babies and children between one and five years 
old who needed clothing to keep them from cold 
and exposure, received garments made by the 
school children of the United States in response 
to Red Cross appeals. Goods were sent by 
army transports and by steamers of the United 
States Shipping Board and of the allied nations. 
Much cargo space was given free for the Red 
Cross to use in sending abroad supplies most 
urgently needed. The stock of goods gathered 
into the Red Cross warehouses was as varied 
as that of great wholesale houses or department 
stores. In addition to foodstuffs and clothing, 
supplies for the use of hospital staffs were im- 
ported; also building materials, plowing im- 
plements and tools for the assistance of French 
refugees. 

''By the summer of 191 8 there were nearly 
2,000,000 American soldiers in France. Two 
or three thousand were sent every month. 
Sometimes 40,000 men arrived in one day. To 
care for them over there, docks were built by 
American labor directed by American engineers. 
A railroad system was constructed in France, 
with American cars and engines for American 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 129 

use." ^ As more and more people went over 
and affairs overseas became more complicated, 
an enormously important part v^as played by the 
Red Cross. 

One of its first problems was to coordinate all 
the military hospitals maintained by American 
and other foreign societies and individuals, and 
to provide them at minimum cost the supplies 
and materials they needed. The Red Cross 
found itself in a country which had become 
completely stripped during three years of war, 
and supplies had to be brought from other places 
than Europe and stored. Therefore, it was 
necessary to construct warehouses at seaports and 
along railroad routes, where drugs, medicines, 
surgical instruments, and other supplies might 
be available for hospitals in the immediate re- 
gion. Men over military age were recruited 
in the United States by the Red Cross to operate 
the warehouses, men of experience in building 
warehouses and handling stores. 

So completely were the warehouses stocked 
that "an American officer could walk in and find 
ether, bath robes, adhesive plaster, aspirin, sur- 
gical instruments, kerosene lamps, canvas aprons, 
and all sorts of things which the camps might 
happen to need." Foodstuffs and other sup- 

1 Studebaker, John W. "Our Country's Call to Service." Scott, 
Foresman & Co., 1918. 



I30 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

plies for the relief of the sick, wounded, and 
starving people were also carefully stored, 
ready for any emergency which might confront 
our own soldiers and sailors in France or the 
French population itself. Such supplies in- 
cluded flannel blankets, heavy white cotton 
sheeting, heavy shoes, condensed milk, flour, rice, 
beans, corned beef, dried preserved vegetables, 
and preserved fruits. 

WAR RELIEF IN BELGIUM 

The first appeal for war relief that came to 
the American people, was the cry from Belgium. 
The American Red Cross responded and began 
work in September, 1917. During all the time 
that Belgium was in the hands of the Germans, 
the greatest need for relief was among the 
refugees. The Red Cross ''followed the 600,000 
Belgian refugees wherever they went and saw 
that they were provided with suitable food, 
clothing, and comforts." It helped Belgium 
support its own hospitals, it established a 
children's hospital with a dispensary, it or- 
ganized home visiting, milk distributing, and 
home and hospital care by an American chil- 
dren's specialist and nurses. 

The lot of Belgian children has been pe- 
culiarly hard; with their fathers in the army, 
their homes destroyed, and they being refugees. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 131 

there was almost no way for them to have proper 
care. Especially in the small section of Bel- 
gium which continued to be held by the Belgian 
Army, the children were subjected to great hard- 
ship and constant danger. While it is sad to 
see men wounded by shell and bomb, it is still 
more tragic and pathetic to find little children 
torn and mangled by the shells and bombs. In 
accordance with its belief that after the care of 
the wounded, the saving of the lives of the 
children was its greatest duty, the American Red 
Cross established a colony for Belgian children, 
and took active work in supplying children's day 
nurseries and baby-saving work among the 
Belgian children located in France, Switzerland, 
and Holland. "The work for children," Major 
Grayson M.-P. Murphy ^ says, "is not only one 
of the finest works the Red Cross could under- 
take, but also one of the most effective in aiding 
the future Belgium." 

Belgian soldiers entrenched in the sand dunes, 
guarding what little was left of their country, 
were visited by the Red Cross and made more 
comfortable, supplied with food and clothing, 
and encouraged to make use of their free time 
by taking up courses of study under Red Cross 
direction. Canteens and recreation and rest 
centers were installed at or near the front. Ad- 

^ American Red Cross Commissioner to Europe. 



132 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

vanced surgery posts were established almost 
in the front line trenches for the immediate care 
of the wounded; for those in hospitals, the Red 
Cross supplied the most efficient apparatus and 
surgical aid; for the sick soldiers interned in 
Holland, it provided food and medicines; and 
for the numbers who were at large, incapacitated 
for service, the Red Cross supplied civilian 
clothes. 

Warehouses and stores were erected along 
canals and highways in Belgium to serve as 
centers of relief distribution; barges and auto- 
mobiles were obtained and a regular transporta- 
tion system organized. By means of this system, 
the Red Cross was able to cooperate with the 
Belgian government toward furnishing and 
equipping recovered villages, so that groups of 
refugees might be able to reconstruct their 
towns; the Red Cross furnished for this purpose 
tools, furniture, seeds, farm animals, and other 
supplies needed for restoring community life. 

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS IN ITALY 

Need for American Red Cross assistance in 
Italy became apparent to the War Council in 
Washington during the summer of 1917, when 
from the Austrian front there came swarming 
all over Italy hordes of homeless, starving, 
despairing refugees. Upon the arrival of our 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 133 

Red Cross agents, arrangements were at once 
made with the American Red Cross Clearing 
House to open two canteens for refugees at the 
railroad stations in Rome. Shortly afterward, 
the volunteer workers who manned the canteens 
— American residents — received word at four 
o'clock one afternoon that 12,000 refugees on 
their way south would pass through the sta- 
tion six miles out of Rome and the first train 
was due to arrive at six o'clock. "With but two 
hours to work, the canteen attendants bought 
all the hams and sausages they could find. They 
bought chocolate and cheese and bread and 
blankets. Piling them into their machines, they 
made numerous trips to the station. They sliced 
bread and ham and cheese and piled up thou- 
sands of sandwiches. When the first train, bear- 
ing 1000 refugees, arrived, the Red Cross was 
prepared. Food for the adults and milk for the 
babies was served. When the last train pulled 
out at nine o'clock the next morning, every one 
of the 12,000 refugees had been fed and provided 
with sufficient blankets to keep them warm." ^ 

As soon as the Red Cross workers reached 
Italy they began their care of the soldiers. 
Packages bearing the stamp of the American 
Red Cross and containing socks, chocolate, 
cigarettes, and a variety of useful articles were 

1 American Red Cross Bulletin. 



134 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

distributed to men in the trenches. Rolling 
canteens were sent to the front, each canteen be- 
ing capable of feeding 800 to 1000 men a day. 
Ten of these were soon in commission. Can- 
teens and rest rooms were established at stations 
along the railroads and highways, where men 
could find rest and food if needed. Am- 
bulances were placed quickly in commission, 
manned by American Red Cross drivers. As 
an illustration of the rapidity with which these 
were furnished, it may be stated that two days 
after the United States officially declared war 
on Austria, there appeared on the streets of 
Milan one hundred young American Red Cross 
ambulance drivers, each driving his own car, 
bound for the Italian front. Foremost in the 
work done at the front and among the soldiers 
was that included in the hospital service. It 
consisted in making the hospitals more efficient 
in every way, by supplying drugs, instruments, 
apparatus of many kinds, especially disinfecting 
apparatus. 

Throughout Italy diet kitchens were operated 
for the comfort and support of needy families. 
Day nurseries, schools for children of various 
ages, and creches for children under six were 
maintained; and children's homes and colonies 
were established in the mountains or by the sea- 
shore where sickly children were made well. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 135 

Health centers for older people were also estab- 
lished. After the refugees had been fed and the 
soldiers' families relieved of the great question 
of how they were to live, the next matter that 
called for attention was that of employment for 
those who were able to do some bit for the war. 
Workshops were opened where hundreds of 
people were employed in the various occupa- 
tions for which they were fitted ; workrooms for 
women were equipped by the Red Cross with 
sewing machines and thousands of women were 
employed in making garments. 

RELIEF WORK IN RUSSIA 

As early as July, 1917^ the American Red 
Cross took up relief work in Russia. Events 
have moved with such uncertainty in that 
country, that the Red Cross work has neces- 
sarily been more or less interrupted and decid- 
edly complicated. There was food enough in 
Russia, but there were endless difficulties in 
transporting it. The principal opportunity of 
the American Red Cross to relieve the scarcity 
of food lay along the lines of supplying con- 
densed milk and other concentrated foodstuffs 
to the people and especially the children of the 
larger cities. One of the most important 
measures taken was in providing milk for chil- 
dren in Petrograd. This work helped to save 
the lives of over 25,000 children. 



136 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

In a little over six weeks the children in 122 
schools of Archangel and outlying districts con- 
sumed the following amount of food at the daily 
luncheons provided by the American Red Cross : 
cocoa, 2049 pounds; sugar, 4224 pounds; 
crackers, 7341 pounds; milk, 8161 cans. As a 
result of this noonday nourishment there was 
an increase in attendance and better work on the 
part of the children. On being told that Ameri- 
can boys and girls contributed the money which 
made the daily feasts possible, the Russian 
children sent toys and letters to Red Cross head- 
quarters with instructions to forward them to 
their brothers and sisters in the United States. 

The work of the Red Cross otherwise centered 
chiefly on the medical and surgical needs for 
the army. As opportunities for effective work 
in European Russia gradually narrowed, an 
enormous field opened in Siberia, where hun- 
dreds of wounded soldiers overflowed the 
hospitals and swamped the already overworked 
doctors. A hospital on Russian Island, two and 
a half miles from Vladivostok Harbor, was 
taken over. Carloads of equipment came from 
Japan, cases of supplies were sent from Red 
Cross chapters in Shanghai, Pekin, Harbin, 
Seoul; and the hospital was equipped with a 
staff of American and Japanese surgeons, nurses, 
and other assistants enrolled in Japan, China 
and Korea. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 137 



WORK IN ENGLAND 



American Red Cross work in England began 
with the passing of American soldiers through 
the United Kingdom on their way to and from 
the front. When American troops landed on a 
foreign shore, they could receive no formal wel- 
come from their allies because their comings 
and goings had to be clothed in secrecy. All 
the more, therefore, did they appreciate the 
friendly hand of welcome extended to them by 
their countrymen through the Red Cross. Still 
more deeply was the friendly hand appreciated 
by those .who had experienced the dangers of 
shipwreck. When the Tuscania was torpedoed, 
American Red Cross representatives arrived on 
the scene by the first train from London. They 
helped to equip the survivors, advanced money 
to the various agencies at work in caring for the 
unfortunates, visited all places where survivors 
could be located and saw practically all the sick. 
When this immediate need had been cared for, 
the Red Cross began to make provision for car- 
ing more completely for those who might suffer 
a similar accident. At the Irish stations there 
were kept stores of clothing, first-aid outfits and 
other necessary supplies, ample for any emer- 
gency. At properly located points supplies were 
kept on hand for completely outfitting 6000 ship- 



138 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

wrecked Americans at a moment's notice. Ar- 
rangements were also made for billeting, hous- 
ing and feeding any number of men who might 
be unexpectedly landed at ports where there 
were no British military camps; and a fleet of 
motor cars was made available for the trans- 
portation of supplies in case of an emergency. 
A new problem in hospital work was presented 
by the large number of small camps of Ameri- 
can soldiers, especially aviators. This problem 
was met by the establishment of small tent hos- 
pitals where soldiers suffering from minor ail- 
ments could be cared for satisfactorily. There 
were other camps along the line of communica- 
tion between the sea and the battle front, in 
which troops debarked for longer or shorter 
periods were quartered. The work among 
them was similar to that done among the troops 
in the large training camps. Canteens were 
provided, rest rooms arranged, and everything 
possible done to make their stay as comfortable 
as could be under the circumstances. Thus it 
was that the American Red Cross in Great 
Britain was with the American soldier from the 
time he landed on British soil until he left for 
France. A Red Cross debarkation officer 
boarded the incoming transport long before it 
docked, Red Cross workers were on hand in 
every port and camp, and a Red Cross embarka- 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 139 

tion officer was almost the last man to quit the 
outgoing transport before it lifted anchor for a 
French port.^ 

IN SWITZERLAND 

Only during the last six months of the war 
did the American Red Cross find active work 
required in Switzerland. Previous to that time 
the American Red Cross had donated money to 
the Swiss Red Cross to assist Switzerland in 
carrying the great burden thrust upon her in 
caring for thousands of the homeless who were 
sent across her borders. When the Red Cross 
workers arrived they constructed and main- 
tained hospitals, huts, canteens, and homes for 
soldiers who were obliged to remain in Switzer- 
land for any length of time; provided for neces- 
sities among interned allied soldiers and refugees 
from invaded districts; and anticipated the pos- 
sible requirements for American prisoners of 
war interned in Switzerland. These interned 
soldiers presented a serious problem. They had 
come from German prison camps where they 
had been as long as four years, in many instances. 
A great many of them were mentally ill, and 
it was absolutely necessary that all who could 
work should be steadily employed, as idleness af- 
fected them seriously. Shops were established 

'^American Red Cross Bulletin. 



I40 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

by the Swiss government where these soldiers 
made a great variety of necessary articles, many 
of which were sent to America, where they met 
with immediate sale. Work among the civilians 
in Switzerland was divided into three branches: 
Refugees from war-invaded districts (this in- 
cluded the children of these refugees) and the 
children of interned soldiers; civilian citizens 
of the United States, or of allied nations, either 
detained in Switzerland or in transit through the 
country; and Swiss families, whose sons or 
fathers were in the United States Army. 

It was through three great storehouses estab- 
lished in Switzerland that supplies from the 
United States were sent to American soldiers in 
German prison camps. These supplies con- 
sisted of everything that prisoners might need. 
There were food, clothing, and material to make 
clothing, both for officers and men. There were 
dainties for the sick and comforts for the suffer- 
ing. There were pipes and tobacco and ciga- 
rettes and chocolate and combs and shaving out- 
fits and every and any thing that might lighten 
the imprisonment of our boys in German hands. 
Plans were also perfected for keeping up com- 
munication with them and for sending news of 
their whereabouts and condition to their families 
in America, and in returning to them such sup- 
plies and messages as relatives might wish to for- 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 141 

ward. In short, wherever Americans were in 
the hands of the Germans they were being sought 
out and cared for by the fund which the Ameri- 
can people so liberally donated to Red Cross 
work. 

Arrangements were made whereby the War 
and Navy Departments delivered to the Ameri- 
can Red Cross in Paris proper rations and cloth- 
ing. These were forwarded to Berne, and from 
there distributed. In order that a record might 
be kept of whether the food and comforts sent 
the prisoners reached its destination, a card ac- 
companied each package. This was signed and 
returned by post by the prisoner who received it. 
If the food and comforts did go astray, plans 
were perfected for tracing them. This was done 
in the same manner that the men were found and 
communication with them established. Eighty- 
six per cent of these cards were returned. 

"Had it not been for the American Red Cross, 
I should have starved to death," is the story told 
by the prisoners of war. "The Red Cross is 
wonderful," said one who spent thirteen months 
in German prison camps ; "it kept us so well sup- 
plied that a prisoner receiving his weekly box 
never needed to touch the German slop." His 
testimony is emphatic on two points, namely, that 
the food served by the Germans "was no better 
than slop" and that the packages of food sent by 
the American Red Cross saved the day. 



142 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

WORK IN SERBIA AND OTHER BALKAN COUNTRIES 

Next to Belgium and France, the chief center 
of American relief abroad has been Serbia. 
There is hardly a family in Serbia that has not 
been uprooted and torn from its home, and few 
that have not lost some member on the battle- 
field. In villages which had been destroyed by 
shell fire, the Red Cross Commission found the 
inhabitants practically without shelter, living in 
the cellars of their ruined homes. Adobe 
houses were built for these people. In villages 
stripped of everything and left desolate by the 
Austrians, there were found old men, women, 
and children wholly dependent on charity. The 
most practical way to help them seemed to be 
to supply them with seeds and agricultural im-- 
plements, tractors, farm tools and machinery; 
and early in 191 8 a party of agricultural experts 
was sent out to take charge of the work, which 
would not only feed these people and assure 
them a livelihood, but would provide reserves 
of food for refugees in other regions. Small 
hospitals were erected, and on the Serbian front 
canteens were operated to give refreshments to 
convalescent soldiers returning to duty. Serbian 
refugees were scattered through Northern 
Greece, and there the American Red Cross again 
furnished food and clothing and medicine. 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 143 

In Rumania, the need was probably greatest 
of all, When the American Red Cross reached 
there in September, 1917, out of a population 
of eight million, three million were dead of 
disease, privation, or on the field of battle, and 
the remaining five million — panic-stricken, ex- 
hausted, utterly demoralized — were penned in a 
nearly barren district, about the size of the state 
of Connecticut, with nothing to look forward to 
but death by starvation or disease. In the provi- 
sional capital, where the government made its 
last stand, the normal population of 70,000 had 
increased to 300,000. Wounded soldiers lay 
three in a bed in the improvised hospitals, or 
piled one upon the other on the bare floors like 
the dead inanimate bodies they were soon to be- 
come. There was no medicine, no clothing, and 
the small stock of food was diminishing day 
by day. The thousands of refugees who had 
fled in blind terror before the furious voice of 
the German guns could find no shelter; they 
lived and slept, and in many cases died, in the 
streets. Famine walked the city in broad day- 
light. And then came the epidemics. At first 
they were the ordinary diseases with a high per- 
centage of pneumonia. Then came cholera, and 
last, that scourge of demoralized and impover- 
ished peoples — typhus. 

Canteens were opened by the Red Cross where 



144 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the people received clothing and medical atten- 
tion, and where a substantial meal was served at 
small cost; so great was the suffering that crowds 
of famished refugees spent the night waiting to 
be first in line when the door opened in the morn- 
ing. Two hospitals and an orphanage were 
maintained, and tons of foodstuffs, salt fish and 
flour and butter and tea, thousands of gar- 
ments, medicines, bandages, surgical instruments, 
serums and vaccines with which to combat the 
epidemics of typhus and intermittent fever, and 
materials from which, under their direction, the 
refugees made garments at minimum cost, were 
supplied by the American Red Cross. 

After the armistice, the Red Cross continued 
to distribute food, clothing, soap, and medical 
supplies among the destitute inhabitants of the 
Balkans. In Rumania, Greece, Serbia, Monte- 
negro, Albania, and other Balkan countries, the 
American Red Cross carried on its relief work 
with nearly looo American doctors, nurses and 
field workers. The destitute were fed and 
clothed, the sick cared for, and American 
methods of sanitation introduced. Special at- 
tention was givea to the welfare of children. 
The epidemics of typhus and other diseases were 
vigorously combated. Workers of the Ameri- 
can Red Cross units have reestablished thou- 
sands of refugees in their homes, have opened 





Underwood & Underwood, 

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS IN THE BALKANS 



THE CALL TO GREATER SERVICE 145 

schools for the reeducation of mutilates and es- 
tablished plants for manufacturing artificial 
limbs. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry W. Anderson, in 
charge of American Red Cross activities in the 
Balkans, says: "The American Red Cross is 
doing more than merely distributing supplies. 
By their presence and example. Red Cross work- 
ers are inoculating in the people of the Balkan 
countries new ideas of thrift, self-help and clean- 
liness, which must have a lasting influence. 
Through its activities the Red Cross is helping 
to improve the spirit and morale of the Balkan 
peoples, who have suffered severely from pov- 
erty, sickness and misery arising from the war. 
Americans out here are giving the unfortunate 
inhabitants of these countries, not only that ma- 
terial assistance which they themselves are un- 
able to provide, but that stimulus to greater ef- 
fort and desire to improve their living conditions 
which must come from contact with the repre- 
sentatives of larger and more progressive na- 
tions." 

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS IN PALESTINE 

It was not until the 4th of July, 1918, that 
the American Red Cross officially began work 
in Palestine. A Red Cross ship carried 500 tons 
of supplies to that country, including "every- 



146 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

thing that the Commission needed for its work 
of fighting disease and dirt and want, from anti- 
meningitis serum to uniform buttons, delicacies 
for hospital diet. X-ray machines, and Ford 
trucks to haul this precious life-saving assort- 
ment." 

A Commission numbering fifty-seven Red 
Cross workers undertook to fight the terrible 
epidemics of typhus and cholera prevailing 
throughout the country. Hospitals, clinics, dis- 
pensaries, and relief stations were opened. 
Medical and surgical supplies, material for 
clothing and for the establishment of industry, 
plows, water pipes, condensed milk — everything 
necessary to feed starving children, to give work 
to their mothers, and to bring about health and 
cleanliness, were provided as far as possible. 

"It is a far cry to Palestine. But the thought 
of Ford trucks hauling hundreds of cartons of 
American thread and tins of condensed milk 
over the hallowed cobblestones of the Holy City 
ought to make Jerusalem and Jericho more real 
to us than dots on the Bible maps." ^ 

1 Heath, Elizabeth M., in Red Cross Magazine. 



CHAPTER IV 

The Red Cross at Home 

A YOUNG girl came into a city department store 
one bright spring day and walked slowly down 
to the ribbon counter, A young girl buying 
ribbons on a sunny spring day is suggestive of 
new spring hats, and she should have a face as 
bright and sunny as the day. But a cloud over- 
shadowed this girl's face, and her interest in rib- 
bons seemed only half-hearted. As she waited 
for change, a lady approached. 

"Why, how-d'you-do, Madeline ! I'm so glad 
to see you! How's your mother? Not well? 
Oh, I'm sorry. And what do you hear from 
your brother?" 

Madeline's eyes filled with tears which fell un- 
heeded on the bundle of new ribbons. "Oh, we 
haven't heard from Bob for so long! We're 
worried to death about him! That's what is 
making mother just about sick, and father's so 
cross no one dares to speak to him — you know 
how fathers act when they feel unhappy. Of 
course mother and I can cry, but Dad can't, poor 
old dear! You see, we haven't heard from Bob 

147 



148 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

since last February, and we don't know where 
he is, whether he is still in France or has been 
sent to Germany, or whether he's somewhere 
sick in the hospital. We imagine all sorts of 
things, and — " 

"There, there, my dear girl! Don't say an- 
other word and don't shed another tear. No 
doubt Bob's all right, only his mail has been de- 
layed or gone astray. And I'll tell you what to 
do. You go down to the Red Cross office on 

Street and tell them the whole story, and 

those people will straighten everything out. 
Hurry along now, so as to get there before the 
office closes. I'd go with you, only it's so late 
and I have to catch a train. Good-by, good 
luck. You'll be all right once you get into touch 
with the Red Cross." 

Two other ladies also waiting for change at 
the ribbon counter could not help overhearing 
the conversation, and as they both wore buttons 
on which was a tiny red cross on a white back- 
ground, perhaps they may be forgiven for not 
trying not to hear! As the girl hurried briskly 
away, her face alight with hope, the two ladies 
smiled and nodded their heads encouragingly 
and said to each other, "That's so, she'll hear 
from him. The Red Cross will look the brother 
up all right." 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 149 

INFORMATION DEPARTMENT 

A most highly valued branch of Red Cross 
service during the v^ar was the information de- 
partment, which acted as a sort of "go-between" 
for the soldiers and sailors and their families. 
"What's happening to the folks at home is in- 
deed the most important thing in the world to 
the member of the family who is in the army 
or navy," says the Red Cross. Of equal im- 
portance to the "folks at home" is what is hap- 
pening to the member of the family who is in the 
army or navy. When mail was delayed or lost 
or held up by some censor on the way, when re- 
ports came of casualties overseas, when allot- 
ments necessary to the support of the family did 
not arrive, the Red Cross stood as a friend ready 
to investigate and supply information — or, in 
case of immediate need, to supply funds; for the 
Red Cross found a way of doing for the families 
of soldiers and sailors when trouble or mis- 
fortune came to them, what the men themselves 
would have wished to do were they at home in- 
stead of at the front or on the sea. 

HOME SERVICE SECTION 

President Wilson in an official proclamation 
designated the Red Cross as the one agency with 
which the government would cooperate in help- 



ISO GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

ing the families of soldiers and sailors. Wher- 
ever households were found to be in need of 
help, whether in city, town, or country, there a 
Home Service Section was formed as part of 
the local Red Cross Chapter. The Home Serv- 
ice Section is a committee of men and women 
representing, when fully organized, every pro- 
fession, interest, and calling in the country or 
town which it serves. The lawyer, the doctor, 
the nurse; the social worker, the teacher, the 
clergyman; the business man, the business 
woman; the housekeeper; the woman with an 
interest in civic affairs; Jew, Catholic, Protest- 
ant; rich and poor, are welcomed to member- 
ship. It is made up, especially in the larger 
towns, of such a variety of people that no matter 
what happens to a family, no matter what the 
nature of the difficulty which confronts it, some 
member of the committee will have the knowl- 
edge, the experience, and the acquaintanceship 
needed for the solution of the problem. It is not 
charity, but ''only that neighborliness which is 
due every fighter from the people of the whole 
United States." There were less than a dozen 
counties in the United States that did not have 
facilities for reaching and serving soldiers' and 
sailors' families. 

The neighborhood was oftentimes rather 
broad in its area, as in the case of one young 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 151 

Home Service worker who drove twenty miles 
across the mountains and back again in order 
to get word to a father and mother that their 
son in a neighboring state lay hopelessly ill in 
camp and that they must be on their way im- 
mediately if they would be with him at the end. 

Sometimes it was the seeker for information 
who undertook a journey to local Red Cross 
headquarters, in confidence that the desired help 
would be found as a reward for the hardship of 
the trip. In a cabin high up on a mountain 
lived a mother whose only boy had gone across 
the seas to fight. The boy sent home post-cards 
from places with strange names and the mother 
did not know how to picture these foreign towns. 
So one day she started down the mountainside 
to find the Red Cross worker of whom the rural 
mail carrier had told her. Many weary miles 
she walked, but not in vain. The Red Cross 
worker invited the tired woman into her house, 
settled her in a comfortable chair, gave her a 
refreshing cup of tea and a bit of cake, and then 
asked her what her errand was, what assistance 
she needed. 

"I want to know," said the mother, "if you can 
tell me anything about Nancy — not a girl, a 
place in Europe. My boy writes me that he is 
there. It's so lonesome at my farm up in the 
hills that when I hear of my son being in some 



152 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

place like that, so far ofif and strange, it seems 
as if I had lost him altogether. If somebody 
could just tell me something about the place it 
would help." 

She was shown a book which the Red Cross 
worker, luckily, found on her shelves, a travel 
book with pictures and fascinating descriptions 
of Nancy with its quaint old-world streets and 
its people. 

"That's fine," said the soldier's mother, as she 
rose at last to begin her journey back up the 
mountain. "That really puts my boy back on 
earth again. May I come here and look at that 
book again if I get kind o' lonely up at the house? 
The Red Cross could do a lot for us folks if 
they'd tell us about those queer places where our 
boys are." 

The Home Service workers of the Red Cross 
undertook to care for the families of soldiers 
and sailors so well that while fighting in foreign 
countries they need not worry about their 
homes ; that on their return from war they might 
find their wives and children well and happy. 
The Red Cross realized that "nothing puts more 
courage into a fighting man than the thought 
that those he is fighting for are going to be cared 
for while he is absent." On the other hand, "let 
but one man worry and he will become a drain 
upon the vitality of all those who are fighting 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 153 

near him. That is why the soldier with a buoy- 
ancy of spirit is more valuable to a regiment 
than a squad of sharpshooters. That is why the 
Red Cross has been one of the most important 
factors in winning the war, for it was the knowl- 
edge that all was well this side the trenches, in 
the United States, that encouraged a man to fight 
with the best he had in him." 

Sometimes it was a question of money that was 
harassing a family. In many instances the Red 
Cross was able to give practical aid for tem- 
porary relief and, what was still more valuable, 
counsel as to how to plan for the future. Many 
other kinds of help were freely given. "Prob- 
lems in soldiers' and sailors' families have arisen 
from sickness, worry, backward or unruly chil- 
dren, perplexities in household management, 
business and legal tangles, mental depression, 
and sometimes mere longing for the man gone 
away. These things have kept soldiers' families 
from happiness sometimes when there was no 
actual pressing need for funds. Home Service 
committees, by enlisting the aid of physicians, 
lawyers, business men, housekeepers, and teach- 
ers, have successfully aided thousands of families 
to overcome such troubles. 

A few weeks after a certain soldier enlisted, 
a moving van drew up at the door of his home 
and his wife was told that the furniture they had 



154 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

been paying for on the installment plan must 
be taken away as the payments were overdue. 
Of course the young wife was in tears, pleaded 
for a little more time, explained the reason for 
her lack of money, and really succeeded in gain- 
ing a few days of grace. She applied to the Red 
Cross. It supplied the necessary funds, and also 
gave friendly advice which helped the woman 
SD to arrange her affairs that future payments 
could be promptly met. The United States 
surely would not wish to have the family of one 
of its soldiers left in such distressing circum- 
stances because it had sent away the man of the 
family who looked after the money end of the 
household! 

On a farm back in the country lived a couple 
well along in years, and two sons. The younger 
son was within draft age and went to war. Two 
weeks after he had left home, the older son was 
suddenly taken ill and died. It was just harvest 
time. What were the parents to do? The Red 
Cross came to their aid. The couple needed 
help to get in their crops, and the Red Cross 
rallied the other farmers to their assistance. 
Meanwhile, the Red Cross stood behind the 
farmer and his wife financially, until they could 
get their affairs straightened out. 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 155 



ELEANOR AND EUGENE 



Eleanor and Eugene were twins and they were 
orphans. They had a slender income and Eu- 
gene was earning enough before the war so that 
the two could live comfortably. When Eugene 
went away, Eleanor was not in very good health, 
and the sadness and worry caused by the separa- 
tion resulted in her illness becoming serious. 
Indeed, the physician said the girl had tuber- 
culosis and that she should be sent away to a 
sanatorium, in which case she probably would 
recover. But what sanatorium, and how could 
she get there, and how should she prepare herself 
to go, and what about the household arrange- 
ments while she was gone? To the Red Cross 
Home Service the case was reported, and all ar- 
rangements were made. Eleanor went to the 
sanatorium and was cured, so that she was able 
to go to meet the transport when Eugene came 
home. 

SUE AND SAM 

When Sam went away, brave and handsome 
in his sailor suit of blue, he felt very happy 
to think he had left Sue so comfortably settled 
in a relative's home where she would not be 
lonely or neglected. Little did he imagine that 
after a few weeks had gone by, his wife would 



156 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

be miserable. Like any unselfish girl, at first 
she had offered to "help with the work," to "do" 
the dishes, make the beds, dust the living room, 
"brush up" the kitchen, scour the knives, and to 
do many such trivial but very necessary parts of 
daily housework. Little by little Sue assumed 
one duty after another, until before long the 
family began to treat her as if she were their 
servant. Sue felt that it was one thing to offer 
to do things, to work with the other women of 
the household, but quite another to be ordered 
to do things and furthermore to be expected 
to do nearly everything. However, Sue said to 
herself, perhaps they thought she expected to 
"work for her board" and in that case she was 
willing to work hard and then she could save 
all Sam's allotment when it came. Instead of 
that, when Sam's allotment did come, the rela- 
tives claimed it all since they "had been so good 
as to give her a home." A friend of Sue's dis- 
covered the situation (she had unexpectedly 
called on Sue one day and had found her cry- 
ing) and as she was a member of the local Home 
Service of the Red Cross, she took the matter 
up with several of the most discreet women of 
the chapter; a plan was soon worked out by 
which Sue was invited to become a member of 
some one else's family and act as a "mother's 
helper" instead of a family drudge. 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 157 

Many times it was not a question of money at 
all. "It is sometimes much more valuable to 
take a mother to the moving pictures than to 
give her $25," said one of the Red Cross direc- 
tors. As President Wilson has said, "To hold on 
where there is no glee in life is the hard thing." 
There are so many schemes and ways that must 
be learned in order to administer this "home re- 
lief" that it was found advantageous to have 
home service institutes. Therefore, in twenty- 
seven colleges of the United States there have 
been run regular courses in home service work. 
Interested workers go to these schools and study 
the most approved methods of rendering this 
service to families throughout the country. 
These home service institutes have been crowded 
with the chairmen of home relief sections 
throughout the United States.^ 

ADELE 

Adele was just lonely and did not know what 
in the world to do with herself ! She and Rob 
had been keeping house since their marriage, 
a short time before, in a lovely little apartment 
of four rooms. Now Rob had gone to war and 
all Adele had to do was to take care of those 
four rooms. And somehow the rooms didn't 

1 Gibson, Harvey D., in "What Every American Should Know 
about the War." George H. Doran Company, 1918. 



158 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

seem to need much taking-care-of nowadays! 
There was no Rob to bring mud in onto the 
rugs, there was no Rob to leave newspapers lying 
around to be picked up, there was no Rob to 
pull the shades up and leave them at all sorts 
of height; there was no Rob to mix up the sofa 
cushions and leave them to be straightened out; 
and as there was no Rob to cook for, some way 
there did not seem to be much cooking done. 
So after Adele had fed the canary and given it 
a bath, given kitty her breakfast, dusted the 
four rooms — although they did not seem to get 
very dusty, — then what was she to do? Look 
at Rob's picture, shed a few tears, hug kitty-cat, 
and then think how sad and different everything 
was from what she had anticipated! She was 
in no need of money or of friends, but she did 
need occupation. 

Well, just as in Sue's case, a friend came 
to call unexpectedly, found the girl crying, and 
applied a remedy forthwith. "Get on your coat 
and hat, bring your knitting bag and thimble and 
scissors, and come right along with me," said 
the friend. "We need you down at the Red 
Cross rooms. No idle hands in this town while 
the war is on, and while Belgian and French 
babies and women need clothing. Now we want 
you at the Belgian relief Mondays and the 
French babies Tuesdays and at the Red Cross 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 159 

rooms all the rest of the time. Oh, yes, and you 
can go around with Mrs. Brown in her auto- 
mobile collecting magazines to send over to the 
soldiers, and they want more help at the can- 
teen, and we need a teacher for a class of boys 
in our Sunday school, and — " Well, there were 
no more idle days for Adele. In the next letter 
to Rob, she wrote that she was "well and happy 
and just rushed to death with Red Cross work." 

MILDRED 

Mildred was another lonely girl-wife. That 
is, she was lonely for Charlie. She found plenty 
to do, for in addition to the care of her small 
apartment, Mildred had little Ruth to look after. 
Her days were filled with work — blessed work, 
for it kept her too busy to miss Charlie so much 
— but the evenings ! After Ruth was tucked into 
her tiny bed and was sound asleep for the night, 
Mildred would look through the newspaper, and 
then — then was the time she missed Charlie. 
Her only comfort at this time was in her victrola. 
Not long before her husband had gone to war, 
they had bought the victrola — on the installment 
plan — and their friends had given them a ''rec- 
ord shower." What a comfort it was now! 

When Charlie and Mildred had bought the 
victrola they had selected one costing $150. 
Only $30 had been paid when Mildred realized 



i6o GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

that she could not meet all the expenses necessary 
to running the little home, and supporting her- 
self and the baby, and pay the installments on the 
instrument. And yet, how could she let it go; 
she needed the music so! The Home Service 
worker solved the difficulty by persuading the 
dealer to exchange the machine for one costing 
$50, and to consider the $30 which had been paid 
toward the purchase of the victrola as part of the 
price of the smaller phonograph. 

GIRL BRIDES 

Girl brides presented many problems for the 
Home Service workers. They received the 
news of their husbands' enlistments or of their 
being drafted into service, in very different ways. 
Some encouraged or urged their husbands to go, 
were brave and held their heads high as if proud 
to "do their bit" by sending to war the dearest 
treasure in their possession, held back their tears, 
and waved gay farewells as the men marched 
away. Some tried to be brave and proud and 
gay, but found it oh, so hard; their heads would 
droop, their tears would flow, and when their 
boys marched away the poor little wives col- 
lapsed. Other girls were rebellious; they 
couldn't see why the government should step 
in and break up their homes, take away the one 
man they had left everything else in the world 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME i6i 

for, and very likely take away their only means 
of support. For each and all of these girls the 
Red Cross had its mission. 

HELEN AND PAUL 

Helen was pretty and bright and good, and 
tried her best to be glad when Paul said that he 
felt it to be his duty to go to France. He had 
persuaded himself for some months that his first 
duty was at home, that Helen and dear little six- 
weeks-old Florence were his first care and that 
he really couldn't and shouldn't and wouldn't 
leave them. But as friend after friend enlisted, 
Paul began to feel like a shirk, and at last he 
could no longer withstand the call of Uncle Sam. 
So he closed his office, where he had begun to 
be so successful, put on his uniform, kissed his 
wife and baby — that new baby that he had en- 
joyed so short a time — and marched away. 
Helen was all excitement, and her cheeks were 
so rosy and her eyes so bright and she wore such 
a becoming dress, that as she stood in the window 
holding Florence in her arms to wave the last 
good-by when Paul turned the corner and would 
be sure to look back just once more, she was a 
picture that her husband could never forget. 

How the recollection of that sweet brave girl 
and the dear baby cheered and comforted the 
young soldier, and how the vision helped him 



i62 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

fight for those other women and children across 
the seas! Every now and then, as the American 
soldiers entered a French village recently de- 
stroyed by the enemy, Paul would chance to see 
a young woman with a tiny baby in her arms, 
weeping by the ruins of her little cottage, per- 
haps, or over the grave where her dear soldier 
lay. Then Paul's lips would shut firmly to- 
gether, his chin would lift, his brows would 
darken, his eyes would blaze, and he would press 
on with renewed energy, determined to fight 
for the safety of all women and children every- 
where. As soon after that as Paul saw the sign 
of the Red Cross he would tell some one about 
this woman and baby, and ask, "Is the Red Cross 
looking after the families in that town?" 

After a while there came the day when Paul 
was wounded and taken to a hospital. His com- 
pany had been out over the top. Only a few 
boys came back. It had been a furious battle 
and great confusion had followed. When Paul 
opened his eyes, he found himself looking 
directly at a tiny red cross on a white cap above 
a face which he knew at first glance was an 
American face. Paul smiled. "I don't know 
what has happened. But I know I'm all right. 
Red Cross, you know — " and off he went into un- 
consciousness. When later he was able to talk, 
and to think seriously, of course his mind went 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 163 

Straight to Helen and the baby. Why, it was 
for women and babies he had been fighting, and 
had been wounded! Well, what would Helen 
say now? Wouldn't she be glad and proud! 
Upon second thought, however, would Helen, 
did the nurse think, be worried and sad? Oh, 
that mustn't be! Had it been a bad battle? 
Many lost? Dear me! then there would be all 
sorts of dreadful headlines in the American 
newspapers, and Helen — ''Oh, Nurse! get 
some one to cable, can't you, and let Helen know 
I'm all right?" 

Sure enough, there had been all sorts of dread- 
ful headlines in the American newspapers, and 
poor brave Helen read among the list of those 
"missing" the name of her own dear Paul! 
Somebody in America fainted then! And then, 
also, somebody in America telephoned to the 
Red Cross "couldn't they possibly get informa- 
tion about Captain Paul So-and-So of Co. So- 
and-So in the battle of So-and-So, and so on." 
Here again was the Red Cross like a strong chain 
or cord stretching out to Paul in France and 
Helen in America, and soon the glad tidings 
came that Paul was safe, would soon be con- 
valescing and wouldn't Helen please pray for the 
babies of France. When the war ended and 
Paul came home, the Red Cross had no warmer 
friend than the happy young couple who came 



i64 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

with Florence to thank the people at Head- 
quarters for their blessed service. 

LOUISE 

Louise was really a "war bride." She was 
only in her 'teens and would never have been 
married so soon, had it not been that Joe was 
off to the war. She was a slender child, an 
orphan, and dependent on her own efforts for a 
livelihood. She was clever and bright and 
popular, and had always been able to earn her 
living, and she had expected to work for several 
years before she and Joe together had saved 
enough to set up a home. Now, however, Joe 
was going to leave her. Oh, yes, she wanted 
him to go, but she would be left all alone, and 
so lonesome. Joe insisted she should marry him 
before he left, and she at last consented. Joe 
was in the navy and was sent across seas as one 
of a submarine destroyer's crew. Poor little 
Mrs. Joe worried day and night, until what with 
worry and hard work and no one to take her any- 
where to have a good time and get cheered up, 
and nothing to do evenings but wonder whether 
Joe was being blown to pieces, and then to cry 
herself to sleep, — it was no wonder that one 
morning she could not get out of bed and had to 
confess that she ''felt sick." 

Now who was going to look after Louise? 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 165 

Her landlady could not afford to undertake that 
responsibility, the girl had no relatives and no 
friends who could be called on in such emer- 
gency. "Emergency." Why, that word sug- 
gested the Red Cross. Did the landlady sup- 
pose that — as she was a "Jacky's wife" — the Red 
Cross would help her? The landlady was sure 
it would. Wasn't there a Red Cross poster in 
her parlor window, at the side of the service 
flag Louise had hung there? "Well," the land- 
lady said, "if I'm a member of the Red Cross 
and you're a sailor's wife, I rather think we're 
on the right track for help." 

Once more the telephone rang in a Red Cross 
headquarters. And in this great city where 
Louise was of about as much account as an ant, 
the response was just as quick and just as cordial 
as it had been when Helen had sent in her call 
from her nest of a bungalow in a small town 
where every one knew every one else and was 
ready to help. In almost no time, a Red Cross 
visitor had called to see Louise, and then in next 
to no time the sick girl was in bed in a hospital. 
During the following weeks when typhoid fever 
held her in its clutches, and Louise could not 
write to Joe, it was a Red Cross visitor who wrote 
to the young husband, telling him that Louise 
was all right and would be looked after by 
friends until his return. For as soon as the girl 



i66 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

had recovered sufficiently to get to work again, 
an easier and more profitable position was found 
for her, and there she remained until Joe came 
home in the spring. "There'll always be a Red 
Cross poster in our window," they say, ''even if 
we never have more than one room to live in." 

ROSIE AND DAVE 

Rosie was a girl of unhappy disposition. She 
had always been more or less of a silly type of 
girl, shallow and selfish. She lived in a factory 
town and before her marriage worked in one of 
the mills. All her wages went for gay hats, 
bright feathers, and flowers, and veils, cheap but 
"stylish" dresses, sport coats, and the latest 
fashion in shoes. After she married Dave that 
young man began to complain before long about 
the foolish way in which Rosie spent the money 
he worked hard to earn. (Some way, he never 
had thought about that sort of thing before he 
married Rosie !) Then Rosie became cross ; and 
Rosie continued to be cross most of the time, 
Dave thought. 

When the call came for boys to go overseas, 
Dave fairly jumped at the opportunity to get 
away from Rosie. He was among the first to 
enlist from his town. And then to his surprise 
Rosie rebelled. She told Dave that he had no 
tight to go away; that they had never saved 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 167 

a cent; and how was she going to live? She 
couldn't go to work now, and what was she 
going to do? Dave explained to her about his 
allotment, but she regarded his explanation 
scornfully. 

During the weeks that Dave was in camp, he 
was made miserable by Rosie's letters, always full 
of complaints, and he was glad that he was 
among the troops to be sent across quickly. 
Rosie's last letter was such an outcry of anger 
and grief and almost despair, that Dave was com- 
pletely unnerved. The day the transport was to 
leave the dock, Dave literally "went all to 
pieces." His legs refused to hold him up, and 
he sank on the floor of the dock, burying his face 
in his hands and crying like a baby. 

"Look here, son, this won't do!" said a man's 
hearty voice beside him. "Buck up, man! The 
boys will make fun of you if they see a big chap 
like you sitting here crying!" 

Poor Dave! That was it! The other boys! 
Their mothers and sisters and sweethearts and 
wives had been to see them off, but nothing for 
his last memory but hateful letters taunting him 
for leaving a wife who needed him. 

"What's the matter, anyway, my boy?" per- 
sisted the man at his side. "Look up at me a 
minute. Don't I look as if I were a person you 
could trust? Tell me your trouble, and let me 



i68 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

see whether I can help you out. You see this 
button on my coat? You recognize it? I 
thought you would. Yes, I'm a Red Cross of- 
ficial, and I give you my word that I'll do any- 
thing I can to help you, if you'll tell me your 
story." 

Dave's heart was touched and his judgment 
told him he was doing right to unburden his 
mind to this brother-man. So he told him 
hastily the whole sad tale. And he said every- 
thing had come to him in a flash just as he was 
about to go aboard the transport, and he just 
"could not go and leave Rosie that way." 

"Now, see here," said the Red Cross official 
(and Dave never knew how important an official 
that was who came to him in such simple kindly 
fashion) ; ''now, see here, if I promise you that 
I'll send some one to see your wife as soon as this 
boat starts, and that the Red Cross will look 
after her all the time you're gone, in some way 
or another, will you brace up and be a man and 
go on board like a man, and then do your duty 
as a man and as a soldier over there?" 

Dave rose, held out his hand, bowed, saluted, 
and did all sorts of things at once to indicate 
respect and consent, and walked aboard ship with 
new confidence and assurance for the future. 
In France he dreamed of Rosie, and always over 
her head he saw the Red Cross, and when he 




Underwood & Underwood 

PACKING THE CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR WAR ORPHANS 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 169 

awoke it was with a sense of peace and safety. 

When everybody looked for letters on those ex- 
citing days when mail arrived, Dave for several 
weeks was among those who were always dis- 
appointed. Until at last one eventful morning 
a letter came from Rosie. "Dear Dave," it said, 
"I'm awful sorry for being so cross to you. I 
see it different now. I'm glad you're over there. 
Do all you can for the girls and the women and 
the babies. And do anything you can for the 
Red Cross. Oh, Dave, they're awful good to 
me. Everything is fine the way they've fixed 
things for me. You see, they help me, but they 
let me help them, so it's all right. It isn't 
charity, you know. They've showed me how to 
sew and make things, and I make things for my- 
self and I make things for the Red Cross. I 
guess you'll find things different when you come 
back, Dave. With love and kisses — Rosie." 

Well ! If Dave had cried on the dock the day 
he left America, that was nothing to now! He 
hurried away as far as he dared to go, threw 
himself down behind a big overturned tree, and 
sobbed and sobbed. But the tears he shed now 
were tears of joy. And what do you suppose 
he did when a few days later a cable came: 
*'You are the proud father of a handsome son." 
Dave did not shed any tears then. He just 
danced for joy. "Dear Rosie!" he said in the 



I/O GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

letter he sent her, "now you'll have some one to 
keep you company till I get home. I'm glad 
you've learned to sew and keep house all right. 
And those Red Cross nurses will teach you how 
to take care of the baby. They do that over here. 
All these poor, little, dirty, half-starved babies! 
Oh! Rosie, our baby will never look like these! 
But the Red Cross nurses wash them and feed 
them and dress them in new clean clothes that 
you make over there in America, and then they 
teach the mothers how to take care of the babies 
afterward. God bless the Red Cross, I say, 
Rosie, don't you? They've helped me, too, the 
Red Cross men over here with the United States 
Army, they've helped me to see a lot of things 
different, the same as you, Rosie, so I guess 
everything will be different when I get back. I 
s'pose you get my allotment all right, don't you? 
If you don't get it any time, just tell the Red 
Cross, you know. Here's kisses for you and the 
baby. Good-by. Dave." 

There were other kinds of home service made 
necessary by the war, which perhaps may not be 
scheduled under the Home Service beginning 
with capitals but in which many plain, everyday 
members of the Red Cross participated. In 
many a letter sent home by Red Cross nurses and 
other workers, and in many a diary kept by them, 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 171 

occur such sentences as these: ''And then the 
Mayor called a Boy Scout who took us to our 
quarters," or 'The commandant turned us over 
to a Boy Scout who would show us the way." 
The Boy Scout has proved himself very useful 
in war times — as he does in all times. 

Sir Robert Baden-Powell has paid tribute to 
the work of the Scouts in England during the 
war in responding to the demands of the army 
and navy departments, and said, "A great honor 
was done them when the guarding of the bridges 
and the railroads was turned over to them at the 
beginning of the war." 

BOY SCOUTS 

Elizabeth sat at her desk one afternoon in- 
dustriously "pounding out" a few difficult letters 
on the typewriter. Every one else had gone 
lome and the doors throughout the suite of offices 
were all open. Suddenly Elizabeth became 
aware of the sound of footsteps, rapid and not 
very heavy, and looking up she beheld a boy in 
khaki approaching. As he came nearer, Eliza- 
beth recognized in him a wide-awake, energetic 
Boy Scout, short, sturdy, and smiling. He came 
to a halt and saluted. Elizabeth returned the 
salute — being herself what her boy friends call 
"a good scout" — and said, "What can I do for 
you?" "Are you a member of the Red Cross?" 



172 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

he asked. "I am," she replied. "Have you 
subscribed to the last 'drive'?" "I have," she re- 
plied again. ''AH right. That's all. Thank 
you. Hope I haven't troubled you." "Not at 
all," said Elizabeth, "glad to have seen you." 
And w^ith another salute off marched the Scout. 

Boy Scouts are not permitted to do any mili- 
tary w^ork or allowed to perform the part of a 
soldier in any way. The training, however, 
renders them "efficient and dependable in send- 
ing messages by wire, wireless, or semaphore; m 
cooperating in the protection of property by ac- 
cepting definite assignments for the purpose of 
giving alarm in case of danger; in distributing 
notices and gathering statistical information for 
the use of the civil or military authorities; in 
acting as messengers and orderlies; in rendering 
first aid to the sick and the injured, and otherwise 
cooperating with agencies organized for relief 
work and assuming some definite part in the 
American Red Cross Society." ^ 

President Wilson said concerning the Boy 
Scouts' patriotic work: "The Boy Scouts of 
America have rendered notable service to the na- 
tion during the world war. They have done 
effective work in the Liberty loan, war and sav- 
ings campaign, in discovering and reporting 
upon the black walnut supply, in cooperating 

^ Red Cross Magazine. 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 173 

with the Red Cross and other war work agencies 
in acting as dispatch bearers for the common 
public information and in other important fields. 
The Boy Scouts have not only demonstrated their 
worth to the nation, but have also materially con- 
tributed to a deeper appreciation by the Ameri- 
can people of the higher conception of patriot- 
ism and good citizenship." 

GIRL SCOUTS AND CAMP FIRE GIRLS 

Neither were the Girl Scouts nor the Camp 
Fire Girls idle. They were very active in the 
food conservation campaign; they sewed for the 
Red Cross; and they assisted as waiters at Red 
Cross suppers, and dinners, and bazaars. Sav- 
ing and serving became their slogan, and many 
Red Cross service badges were won by these 
girls. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts both worked 
in harvest fields, and helped to gather crops of 
potatoes, corn, apples, and prunes. Sir Robert 
Baden-Powell, at the close of the war, said, "The 
Girl Scouts of America played a part in the great 
war and played it well. Naturally, the girls of 
England and France had a greater opportunity 
to demonstrate their value to the world because 
of their nearness to the scenes of activity during 
the late war." 

"The girls of England have done more than 
their share in taking up the burden of war work," 



174 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

said Mrs. Juliette Low, founder of the Girl 
Scouts in America. "They have given service 
of more than special note in V. A. D., Red Cross, 
St. John and other hospitals in London, acting 
as- scullery maids, orderlies, laundresses, secre- 
taries, messengers, assistant quartermasters, band- 
age and hospital dressings makers, chemists, and 
an infinite number of other things. Several 
of them were sent to France to serve in connec- 
tion with the peace conference under the foreign 
office, and they have helped to support the Y. M. 
C. A. huts for British soldiers abroad. Every- 
thing that girls can do, and some things 
that we don't ordinarily expect girls to do, the 
Girl Guides (as the Girl Scouts in England are 
termed) have turned their hands to, just as the 
girls of America have done in their way. And 
the Girl Scouts of other countries have been mak- 
ing names for themselves too. The war has in- 
deed done a great deal to bring them all to- 
gether." 

CAMP SERVICE 

Everywhere patriotic women of the Red Cross 
put their automobiles at the service of the 
chapters for errands and for carrying bundles; 
and in some places near local military hospitals, 
the automobiles were offered for ambulance serv- 
ice. Young women of the Red Cross, acting as 



( 

■T 1- 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 175 

hauffeurs, carried officers and soldiers to and 



from camp. 

When it came to camp service, there was really 
no end to Red Cross activities. American Red 
Cross work among the soldiers and sailors in the 
camps and cantonments in the United States and 
its territories was among the most important of 
its war relief undertakings. All of this Red 
Cross work was, of course, supplementary to the 
activities of the army and navy departments, 
whether in relief work on the field, in the camps, 
or in the hospitals. * 

The function of the Red Cross in the camps 
and naval stations was to render emergency aid 
and to provide comforts (not luxuries) for the 
men, such as knitted outfits, comfort kits, etc. 
It did not undertake to outfit the Army or the 
Navy, but when the emergency was justifiable, it 
supplied on military request articles which the 
government undertook to furnish but had not 
available. Red Cross warehouses were estab- 
lished in camps and naval stations where articles 
which might be needed were stored for im- 
mediate use in emergency. 

Not only were new articles constantly sup- 
plied, but reclamation departments were estab- 
lished for the repairing and renovating of worn 
bedding and clothing. In a large Western city 
at one time there were 30,000 "comforters" to be 



176 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

repaired. Eighty-five women from all ranks of 
life met in a huge workshop and spent day after 
day patching, mending, padding; then tying up 
the renovated bed covers in neat bundles of ten 
ready to be sent back to the camps from which 
they had come. 

"A glance at the busy, cheery workers, seated 
at the long pine tables, upon which the comfort- 
ers are spread, makes one realize how present 
conditions have welded all strata of society into 
one great service class," said a Red Cross visitor. 

"The women range from rosy-cheeked youth, 
knitting white brows and pursing pretty lips over 
grave decisions or indecisions as to blue or gray 
or pink patch, to gentle white-haired age, whose 
hands lovingly linger upon the stitches set in the 
comforter that will keep 'some boy' warm 
throughout the winter nights. 

''One woman, alert and eager, despite her 
seventy-two years, laughs and jokes as she tells 
her neighbor, a pretty, gay girl, of her boy in 
France and of his devotion and of her pride in 
him. White lids fall over the gay one's eyes, 
and the pretty lips tremble as the girl drifts away 
into dreams of her own 'dear boy' — then the tiny 
stitches increase at a rapid rate to make up for 
the time lost in dreaming. 

"The workers represent widely different social 
groups — the society matron or young girl chats 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 177 

briskly with the plain little wife of the rolling 
mill hand, and social barriers are shattered or 
forgotten in the interchange of confidences about 
Will or Harry or Jim 'Over There.' " 

It was the purpose of the American Red Cross 
to keep in touch with the soldiers and sailors of 
the United States from the day they joined the 
colors, and to look out for their comfort and wel- 
fare whenever and however possible. The plans 
included a corps of sympathetic workers who 
stood ever ready to serve the men who consulted 
them concerning personal home problems. 
^'Suppose, for instance, a young man gets a letter 
from his mother and hears that she is having 
great difficulty in getting coal; or that she does 
not know how to go about it to fix up the papers 
that may be necessary in relation to his insurance, 
or that there is something that she must do in 
connection with getting the proper amount of the 
boy's pay, and she is in terrible difficulties, and 
that the little brother is also ill, — that young man 
cannot be a good soldier, and cannot well go on 
with training while those things are on his mind 
and he is worrying about his mother and sister 
and all the troubles he has left behind that he 
used to take care of at home. But everywhere in 
the camps were placards posted up by the Red 
Cross which tell the boys that if there is anything 
bothering their minds in the slightest about the 



178 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

family at home, just to go right straight to the 
Red Cross house and see the director of the 
Home Service department and he will help them 
out. The moment he went to the house of the di- 
rector, the latter sent a telegram, as direct as he 
could to the Home Service committee in the 
chapter which has jurisdiction in the territory 
where that boy's family resides, and tells them 
what this young fellow desires. They investi- 
gate the case, find out the facts, and send back a 
telegram within twenty-four hours telling ex- 
actly what that boy wants to know. He is 
happy in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred!" ^ 

COMMUNICATION SERVICE 

The most extensive Red Cross service rendered 
the soldiers in the United States was doubtless in 
the hospital zones, in conjunction with the army 
medical corps. Here its first duty was what has 
been known as communication service, that is 
keeping families advised of the condition of their 
sons and husbands and fathers. Daily visits to 
all sick and wounded were made, letters were 
written, stamps and writing material furnished, 
books, magazines, and games were supplied, and 
everything possible done for the friendly comfort 
of the sick men. 

"The day a new patient came into a camp 

1 Gibson, Harvey D. "What Every American Should Know 
about the War." 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 179 

hospital a letter was written home to the father 
or mother stating he had entered the hospital 
on such and such a date and such and such was 
the matter with him, and each day they wrote a 
letter home telling the family how the man 
progressed ; and finally when he got well and left 
the hospital they wrote a letter saying he was dis- 
charged on such and such a day.' 



55 1 



SANITARY SERVICE 



Through its sanitary service, the Red Cross co- 
operated with the United States Public Health 
Service in an effort to keep the men in camps 
or naval bases free from communicable diseases, 
and to prevent the entrance of such diseases into 
camps or their spread in civil communities in 
order to prevent epidemics such as small-pox or 
typhoid fever. 

CANTEEN SERVICE 

Refreshment units, under the supervision of 
the Canteen Service, were established in all the 
important Red Cross chapters from coast to 
coast. Their function was to supplement the ef- 
forts of the War Department and the railroads in 
providing sustenance for troops en route. The 
service was entirely of an emergency character 
and was performed in cooperation with the rail- 

1 Ibid. 



i8o GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

roads. The war department issued instructions 
to the railroads to furnish information to ac- 
credited representatives of the Red Cross as to 
the time of arrival of troop trains at places where 
they were scheduled to stop. Refreshment units 
were organized on a military basis, and only the 
commanding -officer and the intelligence officer 
had foreknowledge of troo-p train movements in 
their respective localities. From this informa- 
tion they determined the character of the serv- 
ice to be rendered. Refreshment units, in or- 
ganization and function, might be likened to a 
fire brigade, says the Red Cross. They were 
prepared to come to the rescue when delays — 
such as accidents, floods, snowstorms, etc. — 
tended to disarrange schedules, resulting in the 
exhaustion of troop train supplies and conse- 
quent discomfort to the troops. 

The "Attention Service" was nearly as popular 
as the Refreshment Service. One chapter's rec- 
ord shows that it stamped and mailed, for 
soldiers traveling, an average of Over 5000 pieces 
of mail per day. 

To provide for the comfort of soldiers en 
route to the front, or from one camp to another, 
canteens were established on the railway lines of 
this country and at embarkation points. At the 
more important stations, meals were served on 
telegraphic request from commanders of troop 



THE RED CROSS AT EIOME i8i 

trains; emergency relief was furnished the sick 
and wounded en route. If necessary, sick or 
wounded soldiers were removed from the train 
and taken to a hospital. As a group of apprecia- 
tive young chaps shook hands with a canteen 
captain, one of them looked at her with tears in 
his eyes, and said, "I did not know there were 
such women in the world." 

"I know you are always happy," said another 
wearer of khaki, to a busy canteener. ''Your 
captain looks it, and I would like to know her 
name and give her three cheers, for she has 
surely made me feel a lot happier about going 
— wishing us all good luck and a safe return — 
and that makes a fellow feel great. Three 
cheers for the Red Cross, for there is no organi- 
zation on earth like it." Other soldiers in the 
group said they never had the chance to feel blue, 
for the Red Cross was always right there to cheer 
them up, no matter where they might be. 
"Everybody knows of and has heard of the great 
work the Red Cross is doing for the men of the 
army; but it takes one who has actually been 
brought in contact with the work to fully ap- 
preciate the good and almost necessary work 
which is being done," said an officer. "If one 
could stop and try and appreciate their feelings, 
having been on a train for several days without 
the regular dining cars of peace time and with- 



i82 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

out the stops at stations where hot meals are to be 
had, and having only an Army Field Range or 
two to prepare food for five hundred-odd men, — 
then one could form a slightly better opinion of 
the truly great gratitude that all on train had for 
those who so capably administered to our wants 
and needs." 

After the men began to come home, during one 
month the canteens reported 2,339,000 canteen 
services performed at various railroad stations 
in the country; 36,160 sick men were aided en 
route at the first aid stations in the canteen huts ; 
and 557 sick men were removed from trains and 
placed in hospitals. Tremendous quantities of 
supplies and food were distributed, including 
more than one million sandwiches, three and one- 
half million cigarettes, 100,000 pieces of read- 
ing matter, a million post-cards, and 328,000 bars 
of chocolate. Ninety-six thousand meals were 
served free to the men in transit. Numerous 
articles, such as cakes, pies, ice cream cones, 
stamps, soap, matches, fruit, candy, etc., also were 
supplied in large quantities to the men, without 
cost. 

The Red Cross Canteen Service, offering the 
final expression of appreciation to the soldiers, 
sailors, and marines on their journey back to 
civilian life, continued throughout the country 
until the last of the troops should be demobilized 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 183 

and returned to their own homes. The canteens 
in the various cities and towns enrolled all men 
as they arrived home and published the welcome- 
home roll in the local papers, so that their friends 
might be informed. Thousands of letters of ap- 
preciation poured into National Red Cross 
Headquarters from demobilized men en route 
home, from returning wounded en route to hos- 
pitals, and from debarking troops. 

When Joe and Dave and Sam reached the 
shores of the U. S. A. once more, their eyes 
sparkled as they rested on a folder thrust into 
their hands, with the familiar words "American 
Red Cross" printed at the top, and in the center 
of the page the picture of a girl in the blue cape 
with red lining which had grown so dear to them 
overseas. And their hearts beat high as they 
read : 

It is the privilege and pleasure of the American Red Cross 
Canteen and Motor Women to serve you in every way and 
to make your homeward journey comfortable and pleasant. 

Canteens are located at all important railroad terminals 
and stations in the United States. More than seven hundred 
canteens and three hundred Motor Corps, operated by 
65,000 patriotic volunteer women, are available to aid you 
en route and to meet emergencies that may arise. Do not 
hesitate to call upon them. 

In traveling, always ask for the Red Cross Canteen In- 
formation Booths, check rooms, light refreshments, smokes, 
lodging, first aid supplies, writing materials, etc. Ameri- 



i84 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

can Red Cross Canteen and Motor Service is free. No 
money will be accepted from men in uniform. 

Commanding Officers in charge of men may, if desired, 
purchase supplies, meals or lodging, for their commands 
through the American Red Cross Canteens. If he has funds 
for this purpose the Officer in Charge can pay the Canteen 
the actual cost of supplies furnished. If not, the Canteen 
will give the service without charge. 

Wasn't this a real true American welcome! 

Following an experiment made at a few At- 
lantic coast points with a canteen escort service 
for sick and wounded soldiers, sailors, and 
marines traveling from debarkation ports to in- 
terior hospitals, the American Red Cross estab- 
lished escort service on hospital or special trains. 
Through an arrangement with the Army Medi- 
cal authorities the Red Cross has been kept in 
touch with the movement of hospital trains. 
Two motherly women were sent on each train 
during the daylight hours by the Red Cross divi- 
sions through which the train passed, one pair of 
workers taking up the services where the other 
left off. These women were proficient in first 
aid, home dietetics, and home nursing. They 
would provide cheer, comfopt, and companion- 
ship for the men and assist the medical officers in 
every manner possible. 

If the commanding officer of a train wished 
to avail himself of Red Cross canteens en route, 
the escort was able to advise which units along 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 185 

the line of travel were best equipped, and meals 
were ordered in advance over the railroad wires. 
Special delicacies, such as oyster stew, custards, 
wine jellies, and other invalid fare, were in great 
demand by the sick or wounded soldiers and were 
promptly provided by the Red Cross. If the 
officer had a kitchen car and wanted to replenish 
his supplies, the escort could aid him by wiring 
ahead to a Red Cross canteen. 

At certain points of debarkation, Red Cross 
chapters made it a point to welcome every man 
— unless he was a hospital case — at their chapter 
rooms, where buttons were sewed on, uniforms 
mended, and the soldiers made to feel generally 
at home. One lonely fellow remarked that he 
''almost wanted to rip his buttons off so as to 
have an excuse to come and have them sewed on 
again." 

In some large cities educational "bus trips" 
were taken by convalescent soldiers, sailors, and 
marines from hospitals in debarkation ports. 
Society women — Red Cross members — acted as 
committee-in-charge, driving the bus, and de- 
livering talks on points of interest visited — 
speaking through a megaphone with a tiny red 
cross on its side. Similar tours were conducted 
by the American Red Cross in London, for our 
soldiers on leave there as well as for American 
convalescents. 



i86 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 



THE WAR BRIDES 



With the homecoming of the overseas soldier, 
came a new feature for the Red Cross, the over- 
seas war bride. From an incoming steamer one 
April day the "wireless" brought a request for 
the Red Cross of the port where the ship was to 
land, to have some one of its representatives meet 
a little French war bride who was arriving 
among the passengers. The soldier husband had 
come by transport and was presumably in camp 
somewhere waiting to be discharged from serv- 
ice. His girl bride would find herself among 
strangers whose tongue she did not understand, 
in a land of whose ways and customs she knew 
nothing. 

But "the Red Cross she knew, oui, oui. The 
Red Cross had been in France. Not only 
France's own Red Cross, but the grand Ameri- 
can Red Cross. Oh, everywhere the grand 
American Red Cross. It could always do every- 
thing! She felt not afraid, when they told her 
in' France that the Red Cross would meet her 
in America and help her find her way to her 
Frangois." 

The bride was going to her husband's home in 
a certain town in a Southern state. Consulting 
the railroad maps, it was found that there were 
three towns of the designated name in that one 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 187 

state. Which town of the three was the town? 
Persistency and the telegraph wires and Red 
Cross cooperation at the other end of the wires 
eventually located the family in the right town, 
and arrangements were completed for the jour- 
ney. 

On another ship from overseas came another 
war bride, this time from Belgium. Again the 
message came to the Red Cross to meet the boat 
and speed the bride on her way. There proved 
to be only one town of the name given in her ad- 
dress, but in this case the duplication — or tripli- 
cation — ^occurred in the husband's name. This 
name, it seemed, was not uncommon in the lo- 
cality where his home was, and there were found 
to be three men of exactly the same name. To 
which family did -the little Belgian belong? 
More persistency, more telegraphing back and 
forth, and at last, sure enough, there was found 
the one family of all the three which had a sol- 
dier son now in camp, who had married a Bel- 
gian girl, who was expected to come over here 
to join him. Yes, Jose was her name and they 
would look for her on such a train such a day! 

HOME SERVICE AFTER THE ARMISTICE 

Activities of the Home Service section in many 
divisions increased, rather than decreased, with 
the signing of the armistice. It was the idea of 



i88 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the Home Service directors to continue its par- 
ticular work ''until the last soldier has come back 
from Europe or from camp in this country and 
has been fitted into his industrial groove." In 
order to meet this situation a special Home Serv- 
ice course was given to volunteers, men and 
women, to train them to assist returning soldiers 
in collecting compensation and insurance, in ob- 
taining proper employment, and in adjusting 
themselves to new domestic problems. 

The Red Cross works with the government 
for the disabled soldiers and sailors in America. 
Soldiers who came back from war, blind, 
wounded, perhaps having lost an arm or a leg, 
not fitted to work at their old occupations, must 
be taught by some one to adjust themselves to 
their new life. The blinded are taught to read 
and write, to knit, to do basketry; men who have 
lost their right hand are taught to work with 
their left, and men who could once, but can no 
longer, walk about must be given some occupa- 
tion that will help to keep them busy and make 
them self-supporting at home. The Red Cross 
stands ready to aid the government by helping 
these men to find work; by encouraging them to 
keep at their study; by making them realize that 
every real man wants to be self-supporting. 

*'You want to find a job so as to be able to 
support your family," said a Red Cross worker 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 189 

to one of our foreign-born citizens who, while 
serving in the United States army, had deep 
down in his heart been fighting for the cause of 
humanity in two countries — his native land as 
well as the land of his adoption where his home 
and wife and children were. "Oh, no !" the man 
replied, "me no go back home, my wife too dirty. 
Dirty house, dirty children," and he shrugged 
his shoulders and regarded his neat clothes with 
pride. The man had been not only introduced 
to but made intimately acquainted with baths, 
clean beds, clean clothes, and good food while in 
the hospital. He had already been taught in 
camp the virtues and necessities of cleanliness 
and order. He shrank from the thought of his 
shiftless wife, untidy home, and dirty, ragged 
children. 

The Red Cross worker smiled. "Wait until 
you see your folks !" she said. "You won't know 
them! They're just as clean as you are!" 

And so they were! The Red Cross had seen 
to that! For after the men had gone from their 
homes, from the tenements in great cities, from 
the hovels and huts which are found even in this 
wonderful America, from the slums and the al- 
leys and the backwoods and the forgotten cor- 
ners of the land, — all sorts of men from all sorts 
of homes fighting together shoulder to shoulder 
for America — the Red Cross took upon itself 



I90 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the duty of "cleaning up" and "straightening 
out" things for the "folks back home." The 
Home Service directors realized that part of 
their duty was to have the homes of the men at- 
tractive to them w^hen they returned. 

So the workers went about, in city and in 
country, among all who might profit by the 
knowledge and experience and practical kind- 
ness which the Red Cross has in store. They 
realized that soldiers and sailors would learn not 
only lessons of neatness and habits of cleanliness 
and order, but that their outlook on life would 
be broader and their knowledge of the world 
and of its wonders would be greatly increased. 
Therefore, they went as it were with a book in 
one hand and a duster in the other! 

Appealing to the pride as well as to the heart 
of the women, seldom were the workers repulsed. 
Almost everywhere "people welcomed the op- 
portunities offered them to become acquainted 
with better ways of living." "So many things 
I want to learn; maybe she teach me more than 
writing," said a woman for whom a Home Serv- 
ice worker had obtained an instructor in Eng- 
lish.^ In this way the Red Cross becomes an 
active factor for Americanization. 

One Red Cross worker happened to learn that 

1 "This Side the Trenches with the American Red Cross." Pub- 
lished by American Red Cross, 1918. 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 191 

the husband of a woman whom she was helping 
had been made a sergeant. The news caused 
her to realize the difference between his oppor- 
tunities and those of his wife. He was learning 
to lead other men; he was taking advantage of 
the education which the camp was giving him. 
She, on the other hand, could not speak or write 
English; the family lived in an undesirable 
neighborhood; the children were allowed to be 
irregular in their school attendance; the house- 
keeping was poor. If the man were to return 
to such a family he might become discouraged 
and lose all he had gained in self-respect. His 
home life might be a failure. The Red Cross 
worker helped the family to move to another 
neighborhood; she began teaching the mother 
better standards of housekeeping and arranged 
that she should receive lessons in the English 
language; she saw to it that the children went 
to school regularly." ^ The Red Cross plans 
that the sergeant shall find a congenial household 
when he returns. 

Trained workers went into homes where they 
were needed, giving the perplexed mother the 
benefit of years of experience in planning, buy- 
ing, and dealing with business affairs. They 
found out where boys, girls, and women were 
working under unhealthy conditions; they saw 

1 "This Side the Trenches with the American Red Cross." 



192 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

that medical care was given those who needed it; 
they planned good times for children and grown- 
ups in families whose good times ceased with the 
entrance of America into the war. Recreation 
is almost as important to children as food, in the 
estimation of the experts who serve the Red 
Cross. In their investigations they find families 
who never have a nickel to spend for "a good 
time." For example, there was a widow whose 
only son had enlisted, leaving her with three 
other children to support. She could get along 
only by practicing the strictest economy. 

"There was nothing left after the meals and 
the rent were paid for, and the mother became 
sickly more through weariness of the monotony 
of the struggle to make ends meet, than through 
actual lack of food or clothing. One of the first 
things that the Red Cross did after making the 
acquaintance of this woman was to arrange to 
have the oldest of her three children take her 
to a moving picture show and treat her to ice 
cream afterwards. The experience was so un- 
usual that the woman and her son talked about 
it for days. The Red Cross now sees to it that 
this family has some kind of recreation every few 
weeks. There has, as a result, been a remarka- 
ble improvement in the health of the household." 

The Home Service worker encourages the 
children to become Boy Scouts or Camp Fire 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 193 

Girls and to join the Junior Red Cross and such 
organizations as the Agricultural and Home- 
Making Clubs conducted by the United States 
Department of Agriculture. She persuades the 
older girls to enter sewing and reading circles 
and the boys to become members of debating 
societies and athletic clubs. She learns to what 
church the members of the household belong and 
urges them to constant attendance at church serv- 
ices, and sees that the children are invited to 
attend Sunday School or to join church societies 
and clubs. 

Oftentimes it has been said that this war has 
been fought for the children of the world; that 
the world has been made safe for future genera- 
tions. "The people of tomorrow are the chil- 
dren of today," says the Red Cross. "They are 
the boys and girls who were born last year, the 
boys and girls who are in kindergarten now, who 
are in grammar school, in high school, who are 
working in their first jobs. That these children 
may have greater opportunity, the men on the 
battlefront risked their lives. Is it not impor- 
tant, then, that the boys and girls of the United 
States should be fitted to make the most of the 
opportunities that the world of tomorrow holds 
for them? And of all children, should not the 
sons and daughters of the soldiers and sailors be 
given the benefit of the best preparation availa- 
ble?" 



194 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Sometimes a child says he does not want to 
go to school any more because he has fallen be- 
hind in his classes. For the help of such chil- 
dren there are attached to many Home Service 
sections men and women who act as tutors and 
who help these children with their lessons. 
They often find that backwardness in studies is 
caused by ill-health or by some physical defect. 
A Home Service worker noticed a strained look 
upon the face of a boy who had stopped going 
to school because he had been at the foot of his 
class. It occurred to her to ask the mother 
whether the child had ever had measles. When 
she learned that he had had this disease she took 
lim to a doctor and discovered that, as frequently 
happens after measles, his eyes had become so 
wxak that they required glasses. Now that the 
boy is no longer suffering from defective vision 
he is making excellent marks in school. 

The Red Cross tells us that frequently a child 
does not advance in his studies because they do 
not interest him. The daughter of a soldier 
failed to do well at a trade school where she was 
taking lessons in sewing. The Home Service 
worker found the girl one afternoon leading her 
brothers and sisters in calisthenics. Finding 
that the child's interests were in this direction 
she persuaded the mother to allow her daughter 
to enter a physical culture school where she is 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 195 

now fitting herself to be a gymnasium instructor. 
Naturally the Red Cross is ever alert to the 
health conditions of families, especially of the 
younger portion. Among the children released 
from physical handicaps by the Red Cross are 
such cases as the eleven-year-old brother of a 
man in the service who had walked on crutches 
all his life until one morning in the spring of 
1917 he broke them. The family did not have 
enough money to replace them and asked the 
Red Cross for assistance. The Home Service 
worker took the boy to a physician. The doctor 
recommended an operation, which was per- 
formed, and now the little fellow is able to run 
about like other children and needs no crutches. 
"She plays too hard," the mother of a girl who 
constantly complained of tired feet told the 
Home Service worker. The young woman from 
the Red Cross, however, took the child to a spe- 
cialist in diseases of the joints and discovered 
that a certain kind of shoe would correct the 
trouble. This shoe was obtained and now the 
child plays all day without becoming tired. 

NURSING SERVICE 

In order to carry on so much relief and ad- 
visory work, the Red Cross has to make constant 
use of doctors and nurses. Indeed, the conser- 
vation of the health of the people at home be- 



196 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

comes "home duty plus patriotic service." Pres- 
ident Wilson said that in order to win the war 
the entire nation must be mobilized. It became 
the task of the Red Cross to mobilize the nurses 
of America in three classes of enrollment — Ac- 
tive Service, Special Service, and Home De- 
fense. Next to the enlistment of soldiers and 
sailors, the government knew no greater need 
than the enrollment of sufficient numbers of 
nurses. They were to go "as soldiers of life and 
victory; trained to their tasks, disciplined for 
hardships, needed as never before, facing their 
supreme hour." 

The first duty of the American Red Cross 
Nursing Service is to supply nurses for the mili- 
tary needs of the country. In addition to the 
war service it rendered the nation in supplying 
nurses for our fighting men on both sides of the 
water, the Red Cross, through its Department of 
Nursing, continued its regular work of helping 
to improve the health of the country, maintaining 
a permanent public health bureau which pro- 
vides nurses for towns and villages not in a posi- 
tion to support health departments. During the 
epidemic of Spanish influenza the Red Cross 
Department of Nursing sent several hundred 
nurses to different training camps and shipbuild- 
ing and munition plants at the request of the 
Army and Navy Departments and the Federal 



THE RED CROSS AT HOME 197 

Public Health Service. More than 60,000 
women have been taught the simple principles 
of personal and household hygiene and disease 
prevention in the courses established in Red 
Cross chapters by the Department of Nursing. 



CHAPTER V 
Behind the Firing Line 

THE AMBULANCE MAN 

"What is your idea of an 'ambulance man'?" 
asked Janet's Uncle Henry. He was telling 
stories to the family as they sat out on the porch 
in the moonlight one summer evening after he 
had returned from overseas, where he had been 
engaged in a line of service which had taken him 
"pretty nearly everywhere." Uncle Henry had 
been allowed to stretch out in the Gloucester 
hammock, for every one wanted him to have 
"all the comforts of home" after his rough ex- 
periences abroad. Some of the boys and girls 
in the neighborhood had joined the family, be- 
cause they all loved to hear the war stories. 

"Why, I suppose an ambulance man is a man 
who drives an ambulance," answered young 
John, in a tone which implied that he not only 
regarded the answer as easy, but the question as 
rather foolish. 

"And he carries wounded soldiers to the hos- 
pital in the ambulance," added John's sister Har- 
riet. 

198 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 199 

'Well, let me tell you," said Uncle Henry, 
with soldierly emphasis on the you, "an ambu- 
lance man is more different kinds of a fellow 
rolled into one than you can have any idea of. 
The name of his duties is legion. And like all 
Red Cross workers, he will go an5rwhere at any 
time. He always seems happy, good natured, 
and generous ; I have never heard a hard word 
from one of them. 

"Of course, his first duty is to rush the 
wounded soldiers to the hospital, after they are 
brought from the battlefield. And you've no 
idea how gently and tenderly those ambulance 
men lift the wounded* and pack them in (prob- 
ably about four or five times as many as the am- 
bulance was supposed to accommodate) and 
speed away down the road. No, I am wrong; 
the 'speeding' is done before the wounded are 
taken on. You see, there is no speed limit in 
France, so the ambulances tear along full tilt 
when going to collect the wounded. When 
they return they come at a wonderfully slow 
and even pace. Sometimes they have gone for 
a day and a night back and forth from train to 
hospital, speeding to the train, crawling back 
to the hospital, stopping ten minutes perhaps for 
the drivers to eat a bit; or more likely, the driv- 
ers carried food along with them and ate it as 
they drove." 



200 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Uncle Henry proceeded to say that wherever 
he went, at whatever sort of Red Cross headquar- 
ters he might come upon, he was sure to see a 
line of ambulances marked "American Red 
Cross." It might be away up at the front, it 
might be at the railway station, it might be at 
a hospital, or it might be in a ruined town re- 
cently shelled. Ambulance men must be quick 
to think and to act, ready and willing to under- 
take any sort of service. 

For example, just as one of the big battles of 
the war was under way, the army officers 
realized that the casualties would be far heavier 
than the ambulance corps was prepared to care 
for. The colonel of the regiment appealed to 
the captain of the ambulance division, and asked 
what could be done. The captain asked the colo- 
nel how many more ambulances the colonel 
thought would be needed, and he replied, 'We 
need ten and we need them mighty quick, al- 
though I don't know where you're going to get 
them, or how you're going to get them here if 
you do get them." ''I do," said the ambulance 
captain, ''if you'll supply me with a fast auto- 
mobile and an officer to go with me to help me 
through the lines with those ambulances." 

The major-general's car was commandeered. 
The Red Cross ambulance man and an army 
lieutenant started at six o'clock in the evening on 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 201 

a 158-mile trip to Paris. At six o'clock the next 
evening the Red Cross ambulance man was back 
with ten ambulances and had them in line work- 
ing at top speed. The ambulances had been sup- 
plied by the Red Cross reserve, and were the 
means of saving the lives of hundreds of Ameri- 
can soldiers. Of the ten men who drove that 
historic train of ambulances, nine were afterward 
cited for bravery under fire. The tenth man 
was not mentioned because he did not happen to 
be present on the particular occasion which gave 
the others the chance so to distinguish them- 
selves.^ 

THE AMBULANCE WOMAN 

"Did you see any of the women drivers?" asked 
Doris, who had come over from her home across 
the street. She, too, had been across seas as a 
Red Cross nurse, and found it interesting to com- 
pare her experiences with those of Uncle Henry. 
"I believe there were a good many girls driving 
for the English army and for the French, and 
many Americans were among the number." 

"Oh, yes, I saw one motor section of eighteen 
ambulances completely 'manned' by women, if I 
may use that somewhat contradictory expres- 
sion," said Uncle Henry. "It was an English 
unit, I think, but I recognized at least one 

'^American Red Cross Neivs Letter. 



202 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

American girl that I knew, acting as a chauf- 
feuse." 

"One of my friends was over there before we 
entered the war," said Doris, "and she wrote 
home a description of one day's work. I'll run 
and get it; it's rather interesting in connection 
with this talk of ours." Doris soon returned and 
read: 

" 'I was just turning over, about 6:30, for the 
last precious hour of bed, when there came a 
knock on my door and the proprietress, Mme. 
Luyon, came in to say the Chef du Pare had said 
a train would arrive in twenty minutes. I shot 
out of bed and into my clothes, snatched a roll 
off the cofifee tray, met my own breakfast on the 
way upstairs and fled past it, around to the 
garage. Luckily two of the boys were there 
and we had them hustling, putting in benches 
and blankets, and fortunately the car was not 
fussy about starting. So we were actually at the 
station twenty minutes after being called! 
There were two camions and a couple of military 
cars lined up already, so we backed neatly into 
position in the row of red crosses, and awaited 
the train. The Chef du Pare asked me if I 
would be willing to take a couche (a wounded 
soldier unable to sit up) and himself arranged 
the stretcher across my benches. An infirmier 
got in too and with my precious load carefully 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 203 

arranged I went off to the Jeanne d'Arc Hospi- 
tal.^ He was a nice, curly-haired little man, was 
my blesse, and I told him he was my first and 
hoped I'd not jounced him too much. Then I 
tore back with the infirmier and empty brancard 
to the station, where they promptly gave me an- 
other blesse. He was quite miserable and not in- 
clined to talk, so I hurried him off to another 
hospital. As they were taking him out, his coat 
fell back and I saw the Croix de Guerre and the 
Medaille Militaire on his breast. I would have 
spoken to congratulate him, but there were too 
many men around him getting him in. Once 
more I flew back, and this time the cranky little 
old Medecin-Chef decreed me a third couche, a 
perfectly sweet man who lay very still with his 
arms crossed on his breast, and let his head sink 
comfortably on to the blanket I put under it. 
With him I took an infirmier and beside me the 
administrateur-person of the hospital and we 
Went off. I waited for the infirmier and all the 
stretchers belonging to the train sanitaire and 
took them back to the station. All the wounded 
were now accounted for (41 evacues, of course 
from front hospitals — been since Sunday on the 
way) and I got my dismissal from the Medecin- 
Chef.' " 2 

1 The soldiers had a little joke of their own. They called Joan 
of Arc, Joan of A. R. C, because her statue stood just outside 
the headquarters of the American Red Cross. 

2 Dunham, Theodora, in Red Cross Magazine. 



204 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

"They were a plucky lot, those girl drivers," 
said Uncle Henry. ''One of the cleverest things 
I saw done was the way a college girl trans- 
formed herself into a sort of glorified traffic of- 
ficer and straightened out a tangle on the road. 
There were ammunition trucks going to the 
front, empty camions returning to be filled, loads 
of soldiers and their supplies, and a college unit 
which had been helping to evacuate a town. 
Day and night their cars, driven by young girls 
over shell-swept roads, ferried back and forth, 
carrying out from the town civilians and 
wounded soldiers. This college camionette was 
in the center of the traffic tangle. For many 
minutes everything was at a standstill. Then 
the American girl driver descended from her 
car and with an American flag (which had been 
flying from the front of her car) in her hand, 
assumed the duties of a traffic policeman. 
Sharply she commanded the chauffeurs; they 
obeyed her commands; and in a short time the 
two convoys were moving again. The girl con- 
tinued to direct the traffic for several hours, and 
then returned to her camionette and the evacua- 
tion of the old and helpless. 

"All the women's colleges in the United States 
took some part in the war work. Some pledged 
huge quantities of surgical dressings and sent 
them to the front; some adopted French and 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 205 

Belgian orphans; some undertook the feeding of 
orphans in certain devastated villages; others 
carried on vegetable gardens and canned fruit 
to send across to the hospitals ; another sent a re- 
lief unit to France, v\^ith portable houses, mat- 
tresses, blankets, shoes, hand sewing machines, 
furniture, frying pans, and fruit trees, and yet 
another sent and supported a woman doctor who 
acted under direction of the Red Cross." 

THE AMBULANCE SERVICE 

The ambulance service was looked upon as 
one of the great Red Cross activities. Although 
at the beginning of the world war there was not 
one ambulance car at the service of the British 
Army, within two years six Red Cross convoys 
of fifty ambulances each were made a part of 
the British Army in the field. "They were a 
godsend and the convoyers knew it and were 
proud of it. The more impossible things drivers 
and orderlies were asked to do, the better they 
were pleased. To work for forty hours at a 
stretch — well, that was the common lot when 
things were lively. To drive under fire in the 
pitch dark up an unknown road to fetch your 
wounded. To drive back with them, to drive 
slowly, the shells still splitting overhead. What 
little knowledge of the road you had gained go- 
ing up was likely to be falsified by new holes 



2o6 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the shells would make before you came down. 
That is war. And it is not the courage to face 
such things that should be noted, for courage in 
war is to be expected, even as one expects good 
health, and is not to be more boasted of. But 
think of the cool skill, the mental and moral 
discipline, self-imposed, that was asked of and 
found in those men, all volunteers. 

"Later the Army added convoys, too, and a 
Motor Ambulance Convoy now seems a normal 
part of any army's equipment. Had the Red 
Cross done not a thing besides, yet its pioneering, 
experimenting, and placing on the road of the 
pattern motor ambulance is an achievement for 
which the Army and the nation behind it might 
well say: Thank you. And since that first start 
they have found, moreover, one way and another, 
a thousand cars and the men to run them." ^ 

In the very earliest days of the war it became 
evident that "the saving of soldiers' lives de- 
pended quite as much upon the quick transporta- 
tion of the wounded as upon their surgical treat- 
ment, and in September, 1914, when the battle- 
front surged close to Paris, a dozen automobiles 
given by Americans were hastily extemporized 
into ambulances. From the cases in which the 
cars had been packed, the clever young Ameri- 

1 Barker, Granville. "The Red Cross in France." George H. 
Doran Company. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 207 

cans built tops which transposed the cars into 
ambulances. These were driven by American 
volunteers, and ran back and forth night and 
day between the western end of the Marne 
Valley and Paris. This was the beginning of the 
American Ambulance Field Service. During 
the autumn and winter that followed many more 
cars were given and many more young Ameri- 
cans volunteered, and when the battlefront re- 
tired from the vicinity of Paris, sections of motor 
ambulances were detached from the hospitals 
and became more or less independent units at- 
tached to the several French armies, serving the 
dressing-stations and Army hospitals within the 
Army zone. Such ambulances given and driven 
by American friends of France carried wounded 
French soldiers along the very fighting front in 
Belgium and France." ^ 

The universities of Harvard and Yale were 
among the donors of ambulances. Most of the 
young American volunteers who drove the cars 
were graduates of American universities. Their 
duty was to carry the wounded in the shortest 
possible time from the trenches to places where 
the first surgical help could be given. The men 
worked almost always within range of German 
shells and under German fire. So valiantly was 

1 Buswell, Leslie. "Ambulance No. lo." Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany, 19 16. 



2o8 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

their work done that many men of each section 
received the Croix de Guerre for gallantry under 
fire. 

The lightness and power of the small Ameri- 
can cars made it possible for their drivers to run 
them over steep mountain passes which French 
automobiles were unable to cross. Wounded 
soldiers had formerly been carried over such 
places on mule back. In mule-litters, also, had 
the wounded been transported from the dressing 
stations to the hospitals, taking four or five hours 
for the journey; the American cars were able 
to carry the suffering men in comparative com- 
fort, accomplishing the distance in less than an 
hour. 

*'I must tell you what happened to the wounded 
before our little cars came here," wrote one of 
these American Ambulance men. "We carried 
over eighteen hundred last week and more than 
seventy-five hundred during one month. They 
were picked up in the trenches when they could 
be got at — sometimes, if lucky, an hour after, 
and sometimes five or six hours — or never. The 
brancardiers (chiefly artists before the war!) do 
this work — a terrible job, and very, very danger- 
ous, as the wounded are often between the Ger- 
man and French trenches and they have to creep 
out at night and drag them in. Well, these 
wounded are carried on brancards (stretchers) 
down the hill from the trenches — probably a 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 209 

journey of some thirty minutes, to the 'refuge des 
blesses' (still in the wood), and there a primitive 
dressing, to stop bleeding, is put on. Then they 
are jostled on — on — on — till they arrive at one 
of the 'postes de secour,' where our light little 
cars can go. Here in former days they were 
re-dressed, and if there were room, stayed in the 
little shelter, or if not, they had to lie outside 
till a horse-wagon came to fetch them. Some- 
times they would have to wait many hours be- 
fore their turn came, and even the most urgent 
cases would not get away and arrive at the hospi- 
tal for a long time. Hundreds of soldiers died 
thus. Now, with our little cars, an urgent case 
is at the hospital ready for operation in twenty 
minutes at the most and generally about ten 
to fifteen — no matter what time of the day or 
night. That is why these soldiers around here 
are so grateful. I have seen cars go to fetch 
an urgent case when the driver knew the road 
was being shelled, and the soldiers who see our 
cars tooting up the hill, wonder — and say, 'Vol- 
ontaires?' All the poor wounded fellows look 
at us with the same expression of appreciation 
and thanks; and when they are unloaded it is 
a common thing to see a soldier, probably suffer- 
ing unspeakable pain, make an effort to take the 
hand of the American helper. I tell you tears 
are pretty near sometimes." ^ 

1 Buswell, Leslie, op. cit. 



2IO GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

HOSPITAL UNITS 

One of the vital features of the American Red 
Cross work in France was its emergency aid 
given to the army medical and surgical corps. 
This service was performed almost wholly at 
the base and convalescent hospitals. In the 
beginning, the American Red Cross made contri- 
butions to the French hospitals already in opera- 
tion; afterward it established hospitals and dis- 
pensaries of its own. 

There have been two kinds of American Red 
Cross hospitals in France: the military hospital, 
in charge of a United States Army commanding 
officer, but administered by the Red Cross, with 
a Red Cross representative as superintendent, 
with all supplies, food, construction work, and 
the like furnished by the Red Cross, and the per- 
sonnel furnished by the army; and the regular 
American Red Cross hospital operated inde- 
pendently by the Red Cross, although subject at 
any time to being taken over by the army and 
converted into a military hospital. The Red 
Cross could operate in Paris when the Army 
could not and established many hospitals there. 
Later on in the war, the Red Cross could es- 
tablish hospitals and store depots in many other 
places and under many circumstances where the 
army could not 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 211 

Two years before the United States entered the 
war, the Department of Military Relief of the 
Red Cross recognized that hospital units must 
be organized and prepared, and they began at 
once to recruit and organize at important hospi- 
tals and medical schools groups of doctors and 
nurses who might be called into service at any 
time by the Army Medical Corps. When the 
United States entered the war, six complete units 
were ready for service. Within two weeks after 
the declaration of war, came the call of the Army 
for the Red Cross. The six units were mobil- 
ized at once, and within seven weeks of the dec- 
laration of war one of these had reached Eng- 
land on its way to France and had been received 
by the King and Queen. Red Cross doctors and 
nurses who had been mustered into the Army 
Medical Corps were thus the first detachments 
of the American Army to reach the war zone 
for active service. 

A typical base hospital unit contains twenty- 
two surgeons and physicians, two dentists, sixty- 
five Red Cross nurses, and one hundred and 
fifty-two men of the enlisted Reserve Corps. A 
commanding officer, a quartermaster, and a hos- 
pital sergeant are detailed to the unit when it 
is mustered into the Army Medical Corps. By 
the regulations of the Army Medical Depart- 
ment the "Red Cross personnel, except in cases 



212 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

of great emergency, will not be assigned to duty 
at the front, but will be employed in hospitals in 
the service of the interior, at the base, in hospi- 
tal ships, and along the line of communications." 
At the time of the battle of Chateau-Thierry, 
however, the Red Cross promptly entered the 
^'hospital fighting front," and thereafter some 
of the units were moved from time to time to 
places where the fighting was thickest. 

Sometimes a German aviator dropped a bomb 
on these hospitals, usually at night. The cool- 
ness of all the workers and their devotion to duty 
is illustrated in the following description of one 
such air raid: The attack occurred at eleven 
o'clock at night. Fortunately no convoy of 
wounded was being received or the casualties 
would have been much greater. "One of the 
bombs fell in the center of the large reception 
tent to which the wounded are first borne for 
examination. Ten seconds sufficed for the drop- 
ping of the bombs from the fast flying plane and 
within less than a minute afterward the surgeons 
of the hospital were at the task of collecting 
and attending those who had been struck down. 
And for twenty-four hours they were at work 
in the operating room, one surgeon relieving 
another when the latter from simple exhaustion 
could work no longer. And the very next day, 
just as if nothing had happened, these same sur- 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 213 

geons were called upon to receive and care for 
200 wounded sent in from the trenches. 

''Although the exploding bombs created 
horror in the hospital there was not the small- 
est sign of panic, and the work of discovering 
the wounded and collecting them was im- 
mediately begun. This was made cruelly diffi- 
cult by the darkness, but every one sprang to it 
with a will. Many of the injured had been 
blown from their cots, some even outside their 
tents, where they were found tangled in the tent 
ropes. The American nurse, although struck 
in the face by a fragment of steel from the bomb, 
refused to be relieved and remained at her task 
courageously to the end. A hospital orderly, 
who worked untiringly, was found later to have 
been struck in the head by a fragment and pain- 
fully injured. He h'ad tied up his head and 
worked on." 

THE HOSPITAL ORDERLY 

Right here, we should do well to pay our 
tribute to the orderly, a very busy and valuable 
person who has not received overmuch atten- 
tion or praise, although rarely does any diary 
of a war worker fail to mention this assistant. 
An orderly may be a boy under age or a man 
over age ; at any rate, some sort of man who for 
some reason or other could not be a soldier. 



214 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

"They do everything (except soldiering) that a 
man can do and a woman cannot do, waiting also 
for orders and despatching them with the ut- 
most celerity as soon as they are received. Con- 
voy work they do, hospital work they do, am- 
bulance trains are manned by them, clerking, 
portering, this niche and that has to be filled." ^ 
In their attentions to the wounded, they were 
as careful and considerate as women. They 
called the soldiers "Buddie" and the soldiers 
replied, calling them by the same affectionate 
term. 

THE STRETCHER-BEARER 

Another important and valuable man well- 
deserving his portion of the general praise ac- 
corded to the heroes of the front line, is the 
stretcher-bearer. No toy army with which small 
boys have "played war" has been complete with- 
out its stretcher and stretcher-bearer. No great 
army on the real battlefield could have been com- 
plete without its stretcher-bearers. Ambulance 
men might go far and wide on their errands of 
mercy and life-saving, but there is a line beyond 
which no motor car may venture. 

"They went over the top after the men," says 
a surgeon from the front, "and wherever you fell 
— in the trenches, in No Man's Land, or any- 

1 Barker, Granville, op. c'tt. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 215 

where — there was a stretcher-bearer ready to 
take care of you. After the Argonne fight, after 
a bitter contest under the most trying conditions 
in front of a difficult machine-gun nest, where 
there was quite a pile of our boys, right at the 
end of the pile was a stretcher-bearer who had 
gone forward with them. They were as fine 
a group of men as were ever trained." Many 
of the French employed in that capacity were 
young men who were studying for the priest- 
hood. 

"The stretcher-bearers have the worst job in 
the army," says an army slogan, "but the men 
walk steadfastly through the terrific fire on the 
roads. For they bear a human cross on their 
shoulders and a blood-red symbol of mercy 
pinned to their arms. 'We build, not destroy,' 
is their motto. Their shoulders are a mass of 
blisters where their heavy burdens have chafed 
all day and all night." 

Among the American stretcher-bearers was a 
boy of fourteen from Kentucky, who ran away 
to get into the war. He worked his way to Eng- 
land, where he enlisted in the British Royal 
Medical Corps. He was sent to France and 
there he served as a stretcher-bearer for two 
years. In a story of his experiences, he says: 

"I guess I was like most other boys. I 
never had worked very hard at being sorry for 



2i6 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

anybody or anything. But I learned it all fast 
enough when I was carrying the wounded in 
France. Gee ! but those fellows would just make 
you feel like crying ! Not because they groaned 
and made a fuss, but just because they didn't. 
They'd smile and crack jokes as long as they 
had any breath left in them." ^ 

Some of these stretcher-bearers have been 
decorated for their bravery. At least one re- 
ceived the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille 
Militaire, for going out repeatedly on a shell- 
swept battlefield to bring men in from the 
trenches. An American serving in this capacity 
wrote home, "I shall be proud all my life to have 
done my insignificant part of stretcher bearing 
for these heroic youngsters who are fighting. 
One beautiful youth died in my arms like a baby, 
snuggling his lovely, blonde, scarred head into 
my breast like a tired child." 

In a poem dedicated to the stretcher-bearer, 
Eliot Kays Stone pays this tribute: ^ 

Not much of a hero to look at, I guess, 
Muddy and bloody and weaponless. 
But where shots fly thickest he doggedly goes 
Exposed to the fire of both friends and foes. 

Sing ye of heroes whose brave deeds shine 
On many a crimson battle line, 
But for me the bearer of stretcher cot, 
Who is daily a hero and knows it not. 

1 Red Cross Magazine. 




''«0p,.. " 'V l-l,,,. . 




© Underwoud i Underwoud 

"FRENCHY," A RED CROSS DOG WHICH SPENT FOUR YEARS 
IN THE TRENCHES 




BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 217 



RED CROSS DOGS 



In many instances the stretcher-bearers were 
directed or urged in their search for the wounded 
by those wonderfully faithful Red Cross dogs. 
The training of dogs for war service is not di- 
rectly an outcome of the recent war. The 
British, French, Russians, Austrians, Italians, 
and Japanese, as well as the Germans and Bel- 
gians, have for the past thirty years been experi- 
menting in this line, as to best breeds and 
methods. English collies. Spaniels, Belgian and 
Ger-man sheep-dogs. Saint Bernards, and Aire- 
dale terriers, have all proved to be satisfactory. 
France has a national society of ambulance dogs, 
trained to find the wounded, and to act as des- 
patch carriers and for guard duty. 

When the United States entered the European 
war, appeals were made through the Red Cross 
for gifts or loans of dogs for our army. With 
characteristic American sympathy and gener- 
osity, offers of dogs were received in such 
numbers as to overwhelm the committee in 
■charge of that special new department and an- 
other appeal had to be sent out begging donors 
to stop sending their canine friends. It is pleas- 
ing to note that on Memorial Day of 19 19, sev- 
eral war dogs received medals in acknowledg- 
ment of the splendid service rendered by animals 
during the war. 



2i8 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Military dogs are used as ambulance assistants, 
as scouts and messengers, as sentries, and 
especially as searchers for the wounded. In the 
course of an experiment on a dark night, two 
hundred men were carefully hidden, and five 
hundred stretcher-bearers were ordered out to 
find them. After two hours' time forty still were 
missing. Two of the trained Red Cross dogs 
were let loose and in twenty minutes every lost 
man had been discovered by these clever animals, 
who wore about their bodies a white band on 
which the Red Cross marked them for its own.^ 

In some places dogs have been used as am- 
munition carriers. In the trenches, terriers have 
proved useful as rat catchers. The army dogs 
are trained to find things that are hidden and will 
continue their search under fire until they find 
what they have been sent for. During the battle 
of the Marne, one hundred and fifty men were 
saved by the persistence of a little fox terrier 
who trotted back and forth from the trenches re- 
porting cases discovered. "The dog can do what 
no man can do," says Walter A. Dyer in the 
Red Cross Magazine. "He can dash through 
shot and shell, swiftly and to a position where it 
would be sure death for a man to go. He can 
find the wounded by his superhuman sense of 
smell, distinguishing the living from the dead. 

iBoardman, Mabel T. "Under the Red Cross Flag." 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 219 

He can bear water and restoratives to the 
stricken soldier, and then, by bringing back a 
helmet or other object, inform his masters of the 
wounded man's presence, and then lead them 
there when it is safe to go. These things he did 
every day on the battlefields of Europe, finding 
the wounded in the blackest nights, saving no- 
body knows how many lives." 

In a beautiful poem written by Edward Peple 
for the benefit of the Red Cross, the author pays 
this just tribute to the Red Cross dog : 

And many a mother, who knelt and prayed 
At the cross for her battling son, 
May ever thank God that his death was stayed 
By the grit of a dog that was unafraid, 
In the cause of a cross that won. 

Some of the prettiest war stories the men have 
brought home are those concerning the Red 
Cross dogs. More than once it happened that a 
dog saved his own master's life. A young 
French peasant lad went to war. While bidding 
the members of his family good-by as he was 
leaving home, a sudden idea came into his mind. 
His good dog, his companion for many years, 
was whining at the lad's side, licking his master's 
hand, and raising his great mournful eyes as if 
to show that he knew something dreadful was 
about to happen. ''Oh, let him come with 
me !" cried the boy. "He can serve France, too," 



220 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

The patriotic father said, "Yes, take him, my 
son, all we have belongs to France." So the 
lad took the dog and turned him over to the Red 
Cross to be trained for his line of service. 

Several weeks, perhaps months, later, the 
peasant lad lay wounded on the field of battle. 
With an instinct that seems to be natural to the 
wounded men, he dragged himself along into the 
shelter of some bushes. Night came and the 
darkness covered him. Covered him too com- 
pletely there under the bushes. No one found 
him. Then — crackle, crackle through the 
bushes, sniff, sniff, a short sharp bark, and a tug 
at the fallen man. Yes, 'twas indeed his master. 
Down went the friendly nose until it touched 
the lad's face. Then paws began to be very 
active. At last, the lad was aroused. "Why, 
why, you?" he gasped, and put up his hand 
feebly to stroke the dog's head. As he fumbled 
in the darkness his fingers touched the Red Cross 
emergency case on the dog's side. The lad had 
sense enough to remember the flask always car- 
ried by the dogs, and fortunately he had strength 
enough to get it out from its case. As soon as 
the boy began to drink from the flask, the well- 
trained dog knew it was time for him to take the 
next step in the program he had learned so well. 
Off he rushed until he encountered one of his 
men. And then he did something no well- 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 221 

trained war dog should do under such circum- 
stances — he barked, two or three sharp little 
barks. The men rebuked him, but they seemed 
to appreciate that something unusual was the 
matter. They followed the excited creature 
back to the bushes and rescued his master. ''It's 
my own dear old dog," explained the boy. And 
of course the dog was forgiven his one little 
sin. For every one understood. 

In another instance a dog was wounded while 
guarding a fallen man. The soldiers in the 
trenches saw the dog as he was outlined in the 
distance, but could not see the form of the 
prostrate man. The field was under fire of 
machine guns. At last, one of the soldiers could 
endure the sight no longer. He thought the 
dog was unable to return because of his wounds. 
When he had crawled out to where the dog was, 
the animal snarled at him. The soldier then saw 
the man and comprehended the situation. Lift- 
ing the man to his shoulders, he carried-him back 
to safety, with the dog dragging along at his 
heels. When the party reached the field hos- 
pital, the man proved to be the dog's chief; and 
when the ambulance conveyed the chief to the 
base hospital, the dog rode too. The dog was 
doctored and fed, and recovered from his 
wounds, as did his chief. He was afterward 



222 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

awarded the Croix de Guerre. One day some 
one was relating the story of the dog's rescue 
work and the remark was made that he had 
''cheated a warrior's grave." Then some one 
else wrote the story in verse, and in one verse he 
says: 

At the hospital base his cheating was worse, 
If the theft of our hearts be sin, 
For he sponged on a Major General's purse, 
And licked the tears from the cheek of his nurse, 
As she tenderly tucked him in. 

Among other heroic life-savers was one little 
fellow who was not a Red Cross dog at all, but 
because of his friends at the Red Cross canteen 
and in the Red Cross hospital, he may be ad- 
mitted to this chapter. He was just a plain 
everyday little dog who had attached himself to 
a friendly soldier somewhere along the line of 
march and 'had followed him to the trenches. 
When the soldier went into the fight the dog 
"kept an eye on him" until he was sure of his 
safe return. One day the man did not return. 
Then it was the dog's turn to go to the battle- 
field. He was an observant chap and perhaps 
he had noticed the conduct of the Red Cross 
dogs and therefore knew how to act. At any 
rate, he went out quietly, poked around persist- 
ently and cautiously, until he found his friend. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 223 

He persuaded the stretcher bearers to follow his 
lead, and they came and picked up the wounded 
soldier and carried him away. 

Then such a time as followed! The little 
fellow would not be separated from the soldier. 
Who had the heart to say that he must? Every 
one respects a saver of life. So it came about 
that when the man was sent to the hospital the 
ladies at the canteen said they would look after 
the dog until his friend's recovery. No, I thank 
you, said the little dog. For two days he ate 
no food and seemed likely to die of grief. At 
the end of the second day a Red Cross canteener 
went to the hospital and stated the facts in the 
case. Very well, only one thing to do, said 
everybody. So the little fellow was washed and 
antisepticized and brushed and combed and told 
to be very quiet, and taken to the bed of the 
sick man. Did the dog jump and prance and 
jounce the bed and hurt the soldier? Not a 
bit of it. Fie crept, oh, so quietly, to the foot of 
the bed, and there he sat like the image of a dog, 
never saying a word, but just keeping his eyes 
fixed on the face of his sick comrade. There was 
no resisting the little fellow; and although he 
was only a plain everyday dog, because of his 
bravery, and love, and faithfulness, and because 
of his really gentlemanly behavior in the sick 
wards, he became the pet of every one and re- 



224 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

mained an inmate of the hospital until he and his 
soldier returned to the front together. 

HOSPITAL TRAINS 

Red Cross hospital trains are a very impres- 
sive sight the first time they are seen, full of 
American soldiers who have been wounded in 
fight. Essentially luxurious affairs, they are, 
with their long, beautifully built cars, bearing 
a big red cross at each end. They were built 
in England for the Americans and are copies of 
English hospital trains, with many improve- 
ments devised after the very fine English trains 
had been finished. Through the windows could 
be seen how clean, comfortable, and well venti- 
lated were the cars. 

To fill one of those hospital trains required 
the combined presence and assistance of the am- 
bulance men, the stretcher bearers, the orderlies, 
and the nurses. After careful unloading by the 
ambulance men of the most serious cases, the 
stretcher bearers carry them to the cars, "moving 
on, carefully out of step in a queer dropping 
walk." "They are deft enough, the bearers who 
deliver and the orderlies who receive, but lifting 
a stretcher through a door and turning it and 
placing with never a jar or a jerk is a delicate 
business, not to be bustled over." ^ Then come 

1 Barker, Granville, op. cit. 




Underwood & Underwood 

ON BOARD THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL SHIP " RED CROSS " 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 225 

the bandaged men, ^'that hobble, totter a little, 
sway a little." Orderlies meet them and help 
them in. "Next comes a queer cavalcade. Men 
with damaged feet or legs: an orderly carries 
each one pickaback. It looks like a childish 
game, the childish fun all gone." ^ 

The nurses are in the cars waiting to receive 
the wounded. The train is ''a clean place, a 
tidy, efficient and well-ordered place." The 
nurses are cheerful and jolly. The orderlies 
have a pleasant word of welcome. 

HOSPITAL SHIPS 

Sometimes the hospital train ended its trip at 
a hospital ship. England had many hospital 
ships for the transportation home of its 
wounded. A dozen or more suc'h vessels of 
mercy with their cargoes of crippled and dis- 
abled soldiers, and their corps of doctors and 
Red Cross nurses, were sunk by the German 
submarines and mines. The first hospital ship 
to be sunk was one flying the Russian flag. The 
French had a fleet of hospital ships carrying 
back their wounded who had come from far- 
away colonies, and bringing back to France men 
who had been fighting with the allied armies 
in the East. Many fine transatlantic steamers 
were taken over by the English and French for 
use as hospital ships. Salons, corridors, smok- 

1 Ibid. 



226 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

ing rooms, all were converted into operating 
rooms, dressing rooms, or wards for the most 
seriously wounded. Promenade decks were en- 
closed, making long wards, ventilated by many 
large windows. Another deck would be used 
as quarters for the officers, doctors, nurses, for 
the doctor's office, and a tiny chapel adjoin- 
ing the priest's cabin. The hospital stafif in- 
cluded physicians, surgeons, pharmacists, 
women nurses, men nurses, and orderlies. On 
every French hospital boat there were a Catholic 
and a Protestant priest. 

On one of the French ships the wife of the 
French governor of Algiers was making the 
homeward trip. She was "a woman of great 
personality and charm. She procured the 
names of all the men from Algiers and called on 
each, saying, 'As we are making the voyage to- 
gether, I thought it would be a pleasure to meet 
you.' They were greatly pleased. She asked 
about the battles in which they had fought, 
the work they had left at home, and about their 
families. She wrote down these facts, and the 
names and addresses of every one they wished 
to have her write to for them. She shook hands 
with each man, and left each stateroom with a 
word of appreciation and encouragement which 
included their cabin mates as well." ^ 

1 Morton, Rosalie Slaughter. "With the French Fleet of Mercy." 
Red Cross Magazine. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 227 

The United States had practically no such 
boats. Except for the naval hospital ship 
Solace and the hospital yacht Surf, and two lin- 
ers converted into the hospital ships Comfort 
and Mercy, solely for the use of the Navy, we 
had no hospital ships at all. As we were send- 
ing transports back and forth across the Atlantic 
carrying fighting men over, these same ships 
were used to bring the wounded home. Each 
battleship has a "sick bay," where the ill may 
receive treatment. Every vessel in the Navy 
was equipped by the Red Cross Supply Service 
with compresses, bandages, and a complete line 
of surgical dressings, made from material 
furnished by the Medical Department. 

At the outbreak of the war, the Red Cross 
did fit up and send out one ship, named The 
Red Cross, for the purpose of carrying aid for 
the sick and wounded. Doctors, nurses, hospi- 
tal supplies and refugee clothing went on their 
voyage of mercy to all nations. The ship was 
painted white with a broad band of red the 
words RED CROSS on her sides, and a red 
cross painted on her smoke stacks. Although 
with much difficulty, the ship entered various 
ports, leaving the stores and attendants required 
in each particular section. By the time her re- 
turn trip home was accomplished, shipping con- 
ditions were such that thereafter supplies and 



228 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

personnel were forwarded by regular transpor- 
tation lines. 

REST AND REFRESHMENT CANTEENS IN FRANCE 

The American Army in France was received 
in large reception camps on the coast, and after 
several weeks of preliminary training the men 
were sent across the country to permanent train- 
ing camps back of the firing lines. Because of 
the overtaxed railroad conditions and the length 
of the route the transfer often occupied seventy- 
two hours. Along the route followed by the 
troops the Red Cross established infirmaries and 
rest stations, each in charge of an American 
trained nurse with an American man to assist 
her. Each infirmary contained beds, a stock 
of drugs and other necessities. The seriously 
sick were cared for at French hospitals in the 
neighborhood. Daily calls were made upon 
the American sick in the hospitals by nurse and 
attendant, who took with them reading matter, 
tobacco, and other comforts. 

Long before the first 40,000 American troops 
reached France, the American Red Cross was 
hard at work looking after the physical com- 
fort of allied soldiers all along the line from 
ports to the front. These lines of communica- 
tion were the busiest and at times the most con- 
gested traffic arteries in all the world. From 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 229 

ports to training camps, to supply bases and up 
to the very front line trenches, daily there were 
moving legions of men and vast quantities of 
supplies. Inevitably there were delays in 
movement and soldiers en route to and from 
the front were obliged to spend hours and some- 
times days at junction points and even on sidings 
along the main lines. 

When French army officers were asked what 
the American Red Cross could best do to 
hearten the French Army and to give the 
French soldiers a concrete token of American 
cooperation, they said, "Give us canteens and 
rest stations." Accordingly, at various im- 
portant railway points the American Red Cross 
established canteens and rest stations, operated 
by American women. Before the coming of 
these "joy stations," as they have been called by 
our soldiers, thousands of travel-worn men were 
obliged to spend dismal hours of waiting be- 
tween trains, unfed, unw^ashed, tired and ex- 
posed to heat and dust in summer, or to the 
cold and wet in winter, lying down on station 
floors, often on the bare ground with their packs, 
to rest as they waited for trains. There were few 
lines of Red Cross endeavor in France which 
supplied a greater need or met with more whole- 
hearted approval and support by the allied 
troops than the canteen and rest station work.^ 

^ Red Cross Bulletin. 



27,0 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

*'We established rest and refreshment can- 
teens along the entire length of the railway belt 
line about Paris," said Lieutenant-Colonel 
Harvey D. Gibson. ''These were called The 
Canteens of the Two Flags, — and served both 
American and French soldiers. Soldiers stop- 
ping en route at a station were not allowed to 
leave it or to enter the town: tired, perhaps wet 
and cold, they are dependent on our canteens 
for hot food, comparative warmth, and a place 
to rest. Our canteens dot all lines of communi- 
cation. The American soldier finds in them 
American women who furnish a real approach 
to home comfort; rest rooms, where he can read 
and write his letters, and play games; dormi- 
tories with showers and infirmaries; rest houses, 
where the soldiers sleep comfortably for twenty 
cents, and when the house is full auxiliary cots 
are provided for which no charge is made. 
Allied with the canteen service is the train plat- 
form service, which was established by the Eng- 
lish and taken over by us. Hot coffee is served 
to soldiers on passing trains." 

The women in charge of the canteens served 
day and night. The menu included soup, 
bread, meat, vegetables, salads, cheese, eggs, 
cofifee, chocolate and tea; an additional store 
ofifers canned goods, chocolate, fruit and tobacco 
which men can buy to take with them on the 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 231 

train, as well as postcards and other small 
articles. Arrangements for announcing the de- 
parture of trains enabled men to catch a few 
hours of much needed rest in comfortable, clean 
quarters, without fear of missing their trains. 

One of the canteens has been described by an 
observer : 

"Back of a long porcelain-tiled counter 
American women in white caps and white 
aprons were pouring coffee, ladling soup and 
handing out sandwiches as fast as their arms 
could work. In front was an unending line of 
soldiers, American and French, with bowls of 
soup or coffee in one hand and sandwiches, sau- 
sages and tobacco in the other, making their way 
gingerly through the crowd from the counter to 
seats at the tables in the big room. This can- 
teen seats 360 an hour in the dining-room, which 
is capable of handling 5000 guests daily. There 
are twenty-one shower baths, a barber shop, a 
clothes sterilizer and bomb-proof movie theater. 
All is free except the food, for which there is 
a nominal charge. While waiting for trains the 
soldiers relax and rest. Everything is sold at 
cost, no allowance being made for the big over- 
head expenses. In addition, much is dis- 
tributed free. A bowl of soup, which is quite 
different from the usual onion-flavored greasy 
hot water, costs three cents, and other things are 



232 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

sold at proportionately low prices. Soup and 
coffee are both served in bowls." ^ 

It was estimated that the American Red Cross 
gave meals to at least 1,000,000 allied soldiers 
every month. Tables and benches were ar- 
ranged along the platform, where all who were 
well enough to leave the trains sat in the sunshine 
and ate. For those who could not leave their 
stretchers, food and coffee were carried to the 
train. * We have not only given them the meals, 
but we have these great recreation halls where 
they sit and have their dinners and sit and talk 
and make merry. Then we have the big bar- 
racks like lumbermen's barracks, with bunks 
along the walls, on plans that we and the 
French Government agreed on. Then we 
have shower baths where they can bathe 
and we are putting in a system of disinfecting 
machinery so that the men's clothes, while they 
are bathing, are run through this disinfecting 
machinery where the vermin are killed. Then 
they get their clothes and go home in a different 
frame of mind from before. These people were 
so glad that they did not use the bunks at first, 
but they sat and talked and sang and wondered 
at what America was doing for them." ^ 

To see the men comfortably swapping stories 

1 Wood, Junius B., in Chicago Daily Neivs. 

2 Address by Major Grayson M.-P. Murphy. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 233 

over a cup of coffee, struggling over a game or 
a puzzle, or chatting over the counter with the 
workers, convinced the Red Cross Commission 
that its first effort to divert the thoughts of the 
men from the excitement and horrors of the 
trenches into quiet and relaxing channels had 
been successful. 

It is a pleasure to know that in the early days 
of the war, before the American Red Cross ac- 
tivities had begun, those young venturesome sons 
of this land who could not stay out of the fray 
but hastened over in one way or another to help 
at the very beginning, were cared for by the 
British Red Cross. One such lad wrote home: 
"At almost every stop we were served coffee, 
wine, or bouillon and bread, etc., by Red Cross 
nurses. . . . Last night we took advantage of the 
hospitality of the British Red Cross annex here 
in the railroad station for soldiers and slept 
soundly once again in 'real' beds. . . . The 
ladies here at the Red Cross annex have been 
treating us finely. I wonder where there is an 
English Red Cross Branch or Hospital where 
soldiers are not treated like real men?" ^ 

The British Red Cross maintained a large 
number of railway canteens, and the British 
women, like the American women, worked 

1 Genet, Edmond. "War Letters." Charles Scribner's Sons, 
1918. Edmond Genet was the first American aviator killed flying 
the stars and stripes. 



234 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

faithfully and lovingly, serving hundreds of 
hungry soldiers, and chatting with them in 
friendly fashion. "It was wonderful to watch 
the men's faces change as they ate — they were 
so silent and depressed at first ; then the hot bouil- 
lon took a crease or two out of their faces ; next 
came a plate of meat and a quart of wine ; finally 
a cup of hot coffee which made them smile; ac- 
companied by two cigarettes each, which made 
their eyes fairly gleam." ^ 

Often at the close of a long, hard day, just 
as the women were preparing to close the can- 
teen and go to their rest quarters, a telegram 
would come: "Don't close. Another detach- 
ment coming. Train due at — o'clock." It 
might be nine o'clock or even later, but when 
the men arrived everything was ready for them 
and no signs of weariness or unwillingness evi- 
dent on the part of the workers. The busiest part 
of the day was apt to be between five and seven — 
though "overwhelming floods might occur at 
any minute." 

"Just as we were closing late on a June day," 
says one of these patriotic women, "we noticed a 
cloud of blue in the far distance. We watched 
a few minutes; then the lower half of it began 
to twinkle (that means legs in movement). 
Slowly it got nearer and we hastily reopened and 

1 Dixon, Agnes M. "The Canteeners." John Murray, London, 
1917. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 235 

got things ready. Five hundred men material- 
ized — they were in a desperate hurry; and in a 
quarter of an hour each man had drunk and de- 
parted, and the platform was empty again." 

On another "terribly hot" day toward the 
close of the month, she wrote: "We saw such 
guns passing through yesterday — monsters; the 
men traveling with them looked like little ants 
or flies — like a kitten sitting on an elephant. 
They are 400 and 500 mm. guns, painted blotch- 
ily and fantastically in sky and tree colors, with 
foliage and stems here and there; armored cars 
are painted the same, to avoid detection." On 
that day at the canteen she and her assistants 
served a regiment of Zouaves, another of Aus- 
tralians, "as well as a lot of French and a great 
many men traveling with horses, who might not 
leave their trains. Ten times have I been up 
and down that platform to-day in this terrific 
heat! Miss W. and I both think we shall see it 
forever in our nightmares! I am sure it is 
worse than trenches!" Of another detachment 
of 300 men, she says : "They simply fell out of 
the train and screamed when they saw us and our 
coffee pails, but they were not allowed to go 
away from the train, and we toiled three times 
up and down that weary, scorching platform, 
each carrying two pails, before they were all 
satisfied." ^ 

1 Dixon, Agnes M. op. cit. 



236 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Canteen service did not stop with the railroad 
station or the railway train. Recreation huts 
and canteens were maintained near the evacua- 
tion hospitals, and at the suggestion of the War 
Department all of these connected with the 
American Army hospitals in France were man- 
aged by the Red Cross. At one of the American 
Red Cross canteens a wounded American sol- 
dier came in from one of the worst battles, with 
his head bandaged and his face stained with 
blood and mud. When the Red Cross worker 
asked him what service they could render, the 
young man pointed to a row of little refugee 
children waiting their turn for milk, and said 
roughly: ''Tend to the kids first; I can wait." 

The recreation huts were usually long, low, 
one-story wooden buildings, fitted up cozily 
after the style of a club-house, decorated with 
flags, posters, and gay chintz curtains. Some of 
the huts had a stage at one end where moving 
picture shows and other entertainments could be 
given. There was always a phonograph and it 
was always playing! 

"I don't know what we would have done," 
said a young officer in the Dental Corps, "if it 
hadn't been for those recreation huts and can- 
teens. One time we had been in the train for 
three days and nights, with only two stops where 
we could get hot food. At those two stops, the 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 237 

Red Cross women were right on hand with hot 
coffee and soup. They just about saved our 
lives! Then when we reached the end of the 
trip, we were dumped into a regular mud-hole; 
and officers and all were quartered in a great 
barracks. No beds. Just had to unroll our 
mattresses and sleep on the floor. Hardly any 
opportunity to wash. Well, in a few days along 
comes the Red Cross and establishes a recrea- 
tion and rest station. There we could get a bath, 
and write a letter, and hear some music, and have 
a little comfort. It surely was our salvation !" 

Another officer, a commanding officer, said: 
'Why, do you know, the Red Cross has prac- 
tically saved our lives out here! It is an abso- 
lute godsend to the men and to the officers, too. 
We think we have the best mess in all France 
right over there in that Red Cross building. 
As for the men, they spend most of their time off 
duty in the canteen and that, I am sure, accoun-ts 
in no small degree for their contentment and 
good behavior. You know it means a whole lot 
to a fellow, who's a long way from his home 
folks, just to get a smile and a cheerful word 
from the young women in the Red Cross estab- 
lishment. Of course the soup and coffee and 
sandwiches are not to be overlooked, but the 
smile — well, that goes into the heart." 

Letters from soldiers echoed — or emphasized 



238 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

— the same sentiment. One of these wrote: 
"The women of the Red Cross are the bond that 
helps to keep us from becoming the horde of 
uncivilized barbarians that camp life soon breeds 
and war turns out in seconds." 

The entire canteen service for American 
troops in transit in France, including the opera- 
tion of the metropolitan canteens in Paris, were 
in charge of the Red Cross. In some instances 
mere huts sheltered the workers and served as 
places of entertainment for the soldiers. The 
schedule of a worker in a British Red Cross hos- 
pital canteen is given somewhat after this style: 
"The routine is this : arrive at 8 :30, start making 
a dish for about twelve to twenty-four men ; they 
vary in number every day. It may be a pudding 
or a vegetable; we provide what we like. The 
oven is very bad, and what would take an hour 
to cook in England takes two or three hours 
here. In the meantime, the big marmites are 
heating, and we start to make coffee. By eleven 
the dish we have made, and hot milk, have to be 
ready for those men who are on special regime; 
by 11:15 the whole lot come pouring from their 
dinner to our canteen to be served with coffee — 
any number from 600 to 1000. . . . The pouring 
out goes on as fast as we can pour till about 1 2:15, 
when it slacks off and we can eat what we find 
time for. . . . Almost immediately the after- 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 239 

noon dishes have to be made — two for the even- 
ing meal — and the water started for tea. Tea 
begins to be served from 2 130, and the great 
rush is from 3 to 4, when again it slacks off, 
and we can get our own. Then at 4 145 hot milk 
has to be ready. . . . After their evening 'soupe' 
at 5 the men are apt to try and sneak in again 
and get final cups of tea, but there is usually 
a sergeant about who comes to us and asks us to 
shut, and we murmur 'Captain's orders,' and re- 
luctantly shut down our shutters and turn the 
lights out." ^ 

The canteen of an American Red Cross which 
opened at 6:30 o'clock every morning did not 
close until 9:30 o'clock at night, unless detach- 
ments were due to leave or arrive, when it re- 
mained at work for any need that might arise. 
Only for an hour a day was service suspended, 
between noon and i o'clock, in order that the 
place might be scrubbed from top to 'bottom. 

The women in charge had far less time 
for recreation than the soldiers they served, 
and, in spring and summer, a party of them was 
detailed to go out upon the aviation field at 4 
o'clock every morning with hot chocolate and 
coffee for the flying corps, for that was the hour 
at which the flights began. And to make the 
service a complete success, these young women 

1 Dixon, Agnes M. op. cit. 



240 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

of the canteen padded a large barrel with raw 
cotton and burlap to keep their chocolate and 
coffee canisters hot while the "tin Lizzie" was 
transporting the beverages to the flying field. 
"And not a man drove one nail in that barrel- 
cosey — I suppose that's what you'd call it — nor 
even had a hand in designing it," the keeper of 
the storeroom declared with rising pride. 

"These women," says Forbes Watson, "not 
only come next to a soldier; they are the soldier's 
veritable sisters, standing by his side there in 
the war-zone, and as ready as the soldier to give 
themselves wholly to the war for liberty." 

Many American women who were living 
abroad when war was declared, became vol- 
unteers in the Red Cross canteen service. "The 
way the women worked, and the courage they 
showed, and the long hours they endured when 
it was necessary, make one of the finest tributes 
not only to American women but to women all 
over the world, that has ever been seen," says 
Major Grayson M.-P. Murphy. "The only 
trouble we had with those women was that they 
were always trying to get up where they could 
get shelled." 

"The nearer they were to the front line and 
the more frequently their shed or their cellars 
or their dugouts were bombarded, the more 
tenderly did they hang green branches to the 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 241 

door, festoon the ceiling with bright colors or 
tack some heartening picture on the blank wall. 
It is said that there was not a single canteen 
in France, of all t'he long line of rest and re- 
freshment stations, where the American and 
French Red Cross were united, where some- 
body's genius for home-making did not bring 
an unexpected bit of comfort or beauty." ^ 

In one of these ''huts" an artist among the 
workers decorated the walls with a frieze made 
up of the insignia of many different divisions. 
This decoration not only brightened the canteen 
but furnished a fine topic for conversation. 
"Hello! there's my wildcat," or ''my rainbow," 
a man would exclaim with pleasure at the un- 
expected sight of his special symbol. Or yet 
again, from another man would come a howl of 
disappointment, "Oh, I say, where's my in- 
signia? I don't see it anywhere!" Of course 
that was even the best comment of all, for it re- 
sulted in "oh's" and "ah's" and "Isn't that too 
bad!" and an immediate drawing made of the 
lacking symbol and reassuring promises given 
of its certain appearance at an early date. 
"When you come back here another time you'll 
find it!" And by this means every one in the 
hut was talking, and talking about something 
of what was to the men of vital interest. 

1 Clark, Ida C. "American Women and the World War." D. 
Appleton & Co. 



242 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Red Cross workers have been called the big 
sisters of the camp. Therefore, it was not sur- 
prising to see now and then a sign reading 
"Mending shop." In connection with one of 
the great American aviation camps in France, 
three women were constantly employed in re- 
pairing accidents to clothing. The darning of 
socks, however, was turned over to the French 
refugees. As the Red Cross itself said, "The 
American Red Cross hitched up America's knit- 
ting mothers to France's darning grand- 
mothers." Sock-darning bees were held where 
French refugees darned socks for a small sum. 
Young girls opened the sacks in which the socks 
were brought, sorting and mating them. Three 
big rooms were daily crowded with old refugee 
women darning socks of the American army. 
The army paid four cents a pair and supplied 
the wool. 

ROLLING CANTEENS AND STREET KITCHENS 

Nearer and nearer the firing line did the can- 
teens move on. Field canteens were placed in 
or near the second line where men going to and 
from the trenches might conveniently stop. A 
field kitchen was maintained, from which re- 
freshing drinks were distributed along the front 
by wagons and light motor trucks. Four thou- 
sand portions — coffee, tea, cocoa, bouillon, 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 243 

lemonade — were sometimes served in a single 
day from one canteen. Rolling canteens and 
portable kitchens, all of which were conducted 
by men instead of women, made it possible 
to serve cold drinks and light food in summer 
to the troops actually in the trenches. The 
value of a canteen service in reach of men stand- 
ing duty in trench mud and snow is impossible 
to estimate. It went further than mere physical 
comfort and mental relaxation. It was an in- 
spiration to troops to feel that their personal 
needs were provided for, that their home people 
v^ere within reach through this Red Cross rep- 
resentation. 

"What were those funny looking things in the 
parade that John said were cocoa-cannons?" in- 
quired Harriet, when the family were discuss- 
ing the various features of what was probably 
the greatest Welcome Home parade given after 
the soldiers' return to the United States. 
'What does he mean by cocoa-cannons?" she 
continued in disgust; "does he think I'd believe 
cannons are ever loaded with cocoa? They did 
not look like cannon, anyway. Tell me what 
they were, Uncle Henry." 

Uncle Henry laughed. "Those cannons have 
truly been loaded with cocoa," he said, "but not 
in just the way you understood." Then he went 
on to explain that cocoa-cannon is the soldier's 



244 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

familiar name for a rolling kitchen which car- 
ries hot drinks and doughnuts to the fighters in 
the trenches. The rolling kitchen became a 
regular institution with the battling men. In 
one month of December, 225,000 hot drinks 
were served in this way. The kitchens were 
also used at entraining points, when divisions 
moved. At one such point during the six days 
required to entrain the soldiers, the kitchens 
were operated for twenty-four hours a day, serv- 
ing more than 15,000 cups of cocoa. Thus it 
came about that when thousands of men in khaki 
marched up the most famous avenue in America 
with other thousands of citizens to cheer them 
along the five-mile route, conspicuous in the 
procession were two battered "cocoa-cannons." 
The Red Cross figured conspicuously in the 
parades wherever held. Army officers said: 
"It is the right and duty of the Red Cross to be 
with us. Under army regulations, the Red 
Cross detachment is as much a part of the Divi- 
sion as our headquarters staff or any other unit. 
With their ambulances and kitchen trailers, 
therefore, they must, perforce, be in line just 
as they were in line — always — in those other 
days in Northern France and Belgium when the 
*show' was of an entirely different character. 
What should we have done without the Red 
Cross over there! Now, when our good friends 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 245 

at home are so generously welcoming us, it 
would be only just to see to it that the Red Cross 
received its rightful share of recognition. 
Many a man who will march in the parades, 
the joy and pride of some mother's heart, but 
for the American Red Cross would not be 
there." 

There was one woman, a French woman, who 
did manage to drive a little rolling canteen to 
the very front. ''Mother Ricaux," as the 
"poilus" called her, with her donkey-drawn can- 
teen, was a familiar sight along the winding 
French roads leading battlewards during the 
four long years of war. She bears the distinc- 
tion of having approached closer to the actual 
fighting lines than any other ''cantiniere," and 
has two wound stripes to attest it! One of these 
was received in the retreat of the Marne in 
19 14. The sturdy little pony, the donkey's pre- 
decessor, was killed then, but Mother Ricaux 
was not discouraged, only slightly incon- 
venienced by her wound for a short time, and 
soon the little canteen was trundling trench- 
wards again with its tempting array of sand- 
wiches, cheese and biscuits, pots of mustard, 
salad, eggs, and soup! Yes, the little rolling 
canteen was hard and trying work. But then 
there were the poilus. One did not mind so 
much being tired when a poilu's eyes laughed 
over a thick sandwich! 



246 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Rain or sun, under sprinkling shrapnel, she 
was the faithful friend of the second line. Her 
round, smiling face under her "tin hat" was 
always welcome among her soldier friends. 
And Mother Ricaux was not without troubles 
of her own. Her husband was a cripple, his 
legs crushed by a heavy gun-carriage, and there 
were three small children. Upon another oc- 
casion this brave woman was overcome by 
asphyxiating gas which confined her to the hos- 
pital for more than a year. When the city 
was under bombardment, no one was more fear- 
less and calm than Mother Ricaux, who as- 
sisted in evacuating the wounded. 

Rolling kitchens played an important part in 
Italy, also. In 1917, Lieutenant Edward M. 
McKey, the first American Red Cross commis- 
sioner to fall in Italy, designed and built the first 
rolling kitchens and took them to Italy. For 
some time he was the only representative of 
America on a long front, and he used to serve 
sometimes as many as 4500 men a day from two 
relief kitchens. By November, 191 8, there 
were sixteen American Red Cross portable can- 
teens serving the Italian soldiers in the front line 
trenches. 

Street kitchens were set up along thorough- 
fares where soldiers marching to the front or 
returning from the battlefield might find hot 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 247 

food served free "with the compliments of the 
Red Cross." Such little kitchens were also set 
up on the platforms where trains were being 
loaded with refugees. 

RED CROSS SOAP 

Dearly as the soldier prized ''eats" and 
"drinks" a close rival to either was soap. An 
English woman took with her to a French can- 
teen a half-gross of penny soap tablets, colored 
and scented, and put some of them out in a box 
on the counter. The very next soldier to come 
in "spotted them" at once and asked the price. 
When he was told to help himself, that the soap 
was to be had for the asking, she writes that he, 
"lingeringly and affectionately picked out the 
color he preferred, and muttering 'Soap! free!' 
he retired into the courtyard. Through the 
window I was able to observe what he did. He 
waited about till a soldier came in sight, then 
beckoned him mysteriously, and showed his 
booty. There was- much gesticulation, discus- 
sion, and sensing of the soap tablets; four senses 
out of the five were applied to it; lively satis- 
faction and handshakings terminated the inter- 
view, and soldier No. i departed, while soldier 
No. 2 remained on the spot to repeat the per- 
formance with soldier No. 3. This went on all 
the afternoon, the latest tablet always being dis- 



248 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

played for the benefit of the last comer. By 
evening all the soap had gone, and the men dis- 
played the greatest degree of gratitude, as soap 
is not included in their rations. After that I 
used to buy soap of a dull household variety 
by the hundred kilos and cut it up for them in 
small pieces." 

CARE OF REFUGEES 

During the darkest days of March, 1918, 
when the long-range guns of the enemy were 
reaching Paris and it seemed as if that city might 
really be taken or destroyed, the American Red 
■Cross worked hand in hand with the French Red 
Cross in their endeavor to meet the fearful de- 
mands made on canteens and rest rooms in the 
city. From the northern towns which had been 
supposed to be in a safe region refugees by the 
thousands came pouring suddenly into Paris. 
Red Cross doctors, nurses, and aides cooperated 
with the French nurses and the French Gov- 
ernment officials in helping care for mothers and 
children. Canteens were open day and night; 
for trainloads of troops on their way to the front 
could not be neglected even while the refugees 
were flocking into the railroad station in such 
overwhelming numbers. 

Frequently 2000 refugees would arrive in one 
day, mostly children starved and frightened. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 249 

They were met by the Red Cross nurses, who 
mothered them, bathed them, shampooed them, 
fed them, and dressed them in clean clothes. 
Yet more significant than material comforts 
were the heart helps those forlorn sufferers re- 
ceived from the Red Cross. An aged grand- 
father, for example, had become separated from 
the only member of his family left to him, a little 
boy who had been sent by some other train. His 
deep distress was turned to greatest joy, when 
the lad was found by the Red Cross workers, 
and the two were reunited. Again, a boy of 
six with a little sister of three years, ragged, 
hungry, wet and cold^ had been wandering 
around for six months, but all their sufferings 
were as nothing compared to the fact that they 
had become separated. At the Red Cross can- 
teen in the railroad station, they too were re- 
united, no more to wander, for the present at 
least, as the Red Cross took them into its care. 
There were other refugees to be cared for by 
the Red Cross besides those fleeing from the 
enemy. Air raids and explosions at most unex- 
pected intervals furnished victims requiring at- 
tention. Margaret had finished her morn- 
ing work in the dispensary where she was then 
stationed in Paris, had eaten her luncheon, and 
was preparing to enjoy an "afternoon off," when 
boom! boom! came a terrific explosion. Every 



250 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

one in the dispensary rushed toward the stairs 
on the way to the basement, according to the in- 
structions for conduct during an air raid. Then 
came a third boom! and a sound like a hail 
storm; glass was crashing, crashing, and falling 
in showers. People in the city, supposing the 
enemy was making another air raid, hid for 
safety in the cellars of their houses. All those 
unfortunate persons who chanced to be in the 
streets, or elsewhere in the open, before they 
could reach cover were cut and bruised and 
bleeding from the falling splinters of glass. 

News was soon received by the Red Cross 
that an explosion had occurred in a munition 
factory a few miles outside the gates of Paris, 
that the place was in flames, and all who could 
escape were fleeing to the city. Doctors and 
nurses started immediately for the scene of the 
accident, while others of the Red Cross set to 
work at once to be ready to care for the home- 
less and the injured. The explosion occurred 
at 1 :40 P. M. and inside of three hours the hotel 
where Margaret was staying had been fitted up 
by the Red Cross Bureau of Relief, ready to 
care for all women and children who might be 
brought in. 

Red Cross ambulances were always on duty in 
such emergencies. When air raids occurred or 
cities were shelled by long-range guns, the am- 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 251 

bulance men were ready to rescue or recover 
victims. As soon as the signal was heard warn- 
ing a city or town of an air raid, the ambulance 
men mounted their cars. The sound of three 
cannons fired at intervals of fifteen seconds, fol- 
lowed by sirens blowing, might — and properly 
should — send civilians to cellars and basements, 
but to the ambulance man it was a call to duty. 
Aid raids usually occurred on bright starlight 
nights between 10:15 and 2:30 o'clock. Am- 
bulances stood ready to speed away at an instant 
when ordered, and Red Cross men rode on the 
fire engines to be on the spot ready for service 
when needed. 

People living in America during the war, in 
sections of the country where there were ''fly- 
ing fields" or plants for the manufacture of 
planes, became accustomed to the sight of air- 
planes. When they heard a deep steady whirrr 
like a big bumblebee overhead, they hurried 
out on the porch or into the backyard and looked 
up, hoping to see an airplane or a hydroplane 
out for practice in our friendly skies or pos- 
sibly carrying mail between two cities. To 
watch the giant "darning needle" humming 
across the fluffy white clouds into the clear blue 
of a spring sky, while we stand fascinated by the 
wonder of it all, and only the birds are fright- 
ened by the unknown monster invading their 



252 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

realms, is a very different affair from being out 
on a battlefield or in a threatened town where 
every one is frightened because the dreaded and 
altogether too well-known visitor overhead 
brings disaster and ruin and death. The khaki- 
clad soldier in the open ducks to the ground 
and rolls himself up like a ball; he must under 
no circumstances look up; taubes cannot detect 
khaki balls, but they ca-n see upturned faces. 
For the same reason civilians are warned never 
to look up toward the sky if they are caught 
in the open during a raid. 

When a long-distance gun sweeps the town, 
the inhabitants flee to the cellars as they do 
when an air raid is expected. The heroic action 
of a Red Cross Ambulance Corps and its com- 
mander — who there won his Croix de Guerre — 
is graphically related by an army officer : "The 
town was a little place which lay in No Man's 
Land, midway between our own and the Ger- 
man lines. As a matter of fact, the enemy 
patrols were still penetrating and searching the 
town, and enemy machine guns also swept the 
streets. Two civilians who had managed to 
find their way out, had brought the news that the 
place still held a large number of civilians, many 
of them wounded, who were hiding in the 
cellars, fearful every instant that death would 
come to them, either from shell fire or gas. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 253 

"The Germans, however, were not bombard- 
ing the place just then, as their own patrols were 
there. Many of these civilians had received 
their wounds in the fighting which had ac- 
companied our advance. Many more were 
suffering the effects of gas, which always settles 
to subterranean places, such as the cellars in 
which they had sought refuge. 

''The Captain of the Ambulance Corps called 
for volunteers to proceed to the town, to bring 
out the wounded and to feed the starving people. 
Of the thirty-seven men in his detachment, 
thirty-five volunteered. The other two men 
were ill that day. I learned afterward of some 
of the exploits of this courageous little body. 
It was courting certain annihilation for them to 
drive into the open streets of the town, so they 
parked their ambulances under the shelter of the 
houses at the end of the street. Then they sent 
parties of men into the town in search of the 
people. These men found women and children 
and old men, who had been huddled together in 
dark cellars, without light, without fire, and 
without food for three days. The wounded, 
many of them, had not had their wounds dressed 
at all. One old woman had been shot through 
her two thighs, and one leg was broken. She 
had lain that way for four days, without even 
the simplest treatment. 



254 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

"The Red Cross men used wheelbarrows to 
carry these wounded from the houses to the wait- 
ing ambulances. To expedite the removal of 
the wounded, parties were sent through the town 
to instruct the people to hang a piece of cloth 
on a stick in front of the house where there was 
a wounded person. In this way, all the 
wounded were taken out before we advanced 
and took St. Souplet. 

"Besides this service to the wounded, abun- 
dant food was supplied from the Red Cross 
and our own stores. I may add that one of the 
pleasantest recollections of the many noble ac- 
tions of our own men, was the way they shared 
t'heir rations with the starving people of these 
stricken French towns." ^ 

In other places ambulance drivers of Red 
Cross m'otor trucks helped the refugees to safety. 
As when one morning "while Madame was out 
feeding the three hens and the cock, the Red 
Cross truck drew up and the big, smiling, cheer- 
ful American boy, who was driving, helped to 
load the little wooden trunk and the pillow slip 
full of clothes and the reserve bread and the 
precious pans and, although he shook his head 
when Madame declared that she must take along 
her chickens, he held the sack while they 
dropped in. And even Pierre took his two rab- 

1 "News Letter," American Red Cross. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 255 

bits and his pocket full of greens to feed them. 

''It was only the work of a dozen minutes to 
make the rounds of the dead village and pick 
up the cave dwellers who still remained ; the big 
American boy simply carried old Madame J., 
more than a hundred years old, from her cellar 
to the truck and carefully lifted her to a fine 
soft seat of straw. There were even smiles when 
he fairly threw the kiddies on to the big truck, 
and everybody laughed when he tried to help 
fat old Madame M., who weighs almost two 
hundred pounds, to the high truck floor. Even 
poor Madame D., who had four little children 
and whose soldier husband had been killed only 
a month before, was smiling by the time the 
camion was started. 

"It was a long journey back the twelve miles 
to the old crumbling stone building that had 
once been a convent, for the roads were choked 
with traffic now and for what seemed like hours 
the way would be blocked by trains of wagons 
or cannon or marching soldiers. But once at 
the great building Madame J. and her neighbors 
were gently lifted from the high truck by Red 
Cross hands and in a minute steaming bowls of 
soup were given out, and then they were taken 
to straw-strewn rooms where they might rest. 
Meanwhile the truck was shooting back to other 
little ruined villages, gathering together those 



256 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

who still re>mained and carrying them to 
safety." ^ 

It was the repetition of such episodes as the 
above that caused President Poincaire to write 
to t*he American Red Cross: 

"Now that the hope of victory soothes her pains, France 
remembers that, since the very beginning of her trials, her 
boys fighting on the front or wounded in the field, her widows 
and orphans, and all those who needed help and could be 
reached, have received the heartiest support, both material 
and moral, from the American Red Cross. 

"When peace has come, when wounds are cured, when 
ruins are repaired, when orphans have grown men, France 
shall never forget." 

MECHANICAL TRANSPORT CORPS 

A good many young men — especially Univer- 
sity men — who volunteered to run ambulances 
during the war, were transferred to another 
corps which developed somewhat unexpectedly, 
the Mechanical Transport Corps, employed in 
getting ammunition up to the artillery. The 
officers were all experienced ambulance drivers, 
most of them wearing the Croix de Guerre as 
proof of their valor. Experience and valor 
were both required, as oftentimes the men drove 
their camions forward through towns harassed 
by air raids, swept with shells. A camion is an 
army automobile truck, and as the drivers car- 

1 Hunt, Frazler, in Red Cross Magazine. 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 257 

ried ammunition to the guns they really were 
belligerents while ambulance men are not. 
Therefore the camion drivers felt that they 
would be sailing — or driving — under false colors 
to claim to belong to the ambulance service ; ac- 
cordingly they altered their uniforms, took off 
the Red Cross buttons and tabs of ambulance 
drivers and replaced them by regular buttons 
and tabs of the transport service/ 

''I shall never forget," said Doris, "an excited 
little woman with three sturdy boys clinging to 
her, who arrived at the railroad canteen with a 
trainload of refugees. She proudly told the 
Red Cross workers that an American soldier 
had helped her to get away in his camion when 
her home town had been under terrific bom- 
bardment. To her that ambulance driver rep- 
resented the entire Amerix:an Army and she was 
duly proud and grateful to all Americans. 

"The kindness of those men has become pro- 
verbial," continued Doris, and she added her 
testimony as a Red Cross nurse to what Uncle 
Henry had already said of them. She pro- 
ceeded to tell how devoted the ambulance men 
were to the children in the hospitals where she 
had been stationed. When a suffering child, all 
wrapped up in blankets, was taken from the am- 

1 Irwin, Will. "A Reporter at Armageddon." D. Appleton & 
Co., 1918. 



258 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

bulance, on a stretcher whose every motion was 
torture, and was just ready to cry with pain and 
fright, if, by chance, he looked up at the 
friendly, smiling face above him and into the 
twinkling eyes, — some way the tears don't come 
after all, and very likely the little fellow would 
send an answering smile back to this big, gentle, 
sweet man. 

"Uncle laughs and sniffs when I call a man 
'sweet,' " interrupted Janet. 

"Well," said her mother, "next time just quote 
those lines of Bayard Taylor's: 

The bravest are the tenderest, 
The loving are the daring. 

A child may see the real sweetness in a big, 
brave man's face, where perhaps your uncle 
would not." 

Then Doris told of many ambulance men 
whose eyes twinkled and whose faces wrinkled 
into the sort of smiles that made all sorts of 
rough places smooth. The surliest workmen or 
the most worn-out and ready-to-drop-in-their- 
tracks helpers, men or women, would respond 
to the charm of an ambulance man's magic smile 
and undertake to do the next to impossible. 

Doris said there was an ambulance man in the 
children's hospital where she was at one time, 
who wai refused when he had tried to enlist 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 259 

among the fighting men because he was too fat! 
Poor fellow! Well, you know a fat boy is gen- 
erally a jolly, full-of-fun boy, and is quite apt 
to have a loving heart. So this boy joined the 
ambulance corps. He brought hundreds of 
girls and boys and babies to the hospital, and 
just fell in love with every one, and of course 
they all returned his love. 

''Good-night, daddy! Good-night, daddy!" 
came the cry from every cot in another big hos- 
pital where Doris had been nursing. "Daddy" 
was an ambulance driver, a young lad whose 
heart went out to every suffering child. Each 
night, at the close of a busy day of hard — often- 
times dangerous — work, "Daddy" went through 
the wards with a good-night kiss for every child. 
Who can tell what it meant to those poor little 
waifs whose real daddies were away in the mud 
of the trenches fighting for their country, or 
lying wounded under the starry skies, or perhaps 
forever at rest in a far-away green field with a 
tiny wooden cross at their heads, to have a good- 
night kiss and be "tucked in" by even a "play" 
daddy! 



CHAPTER VI 

"The Greatest Mother i.n the World" 

^^ Stretching forth her hands to all in need — 
to Jew or Gentile, black or white, knowing no 
favorite, yet favoring all. Seeing all things 
with a mother s sixth sense that's blind to 
jealousy and meanness; helping the little home 
that's crushed beneath an iron hand by showing 
mercy in a healthy, human way ; rebuilding it, 
in fact, with stone on stone and bringing warmth 
to hearts and hearths too long neglected. 

^'Reaching out her hands across the sea to heal 
and comfort thousands. She's warming thou- 
sands, feeding thousands, healing thousands 
from her store; the Greatest Mother in the 
World— the RED CROSS." 

Miss Ada Ward, the English cartoonist, was 
sent to the hospitals in France to take good cheer 
to the wounded by her funny stories and pic- 
tures. She tells of seeing a great, husky, fine 
young man who had been brought to the hospital 
in muddy, bloody clothes from the battlefield, 

and who, after being bathed and having his 

260 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 261 

wounds dressed, was clad in a fresh suit of clean 
pajamas and taken into the ward. He looked 
at the clean bed he was about to occupy — the 
first bed he had been in for months — with its 
fresh sheets and pillow cases, and then cast his 
eye over his clean, comfortable Red Cross 
pajamas, and burst into tears. "He just cried 
like a great big boy," says Miss Ward, "and 
then he blurted out the words 'I — want — my 
mother.' " 

Men are only grown-up boys (although you 
must never tell them so ! for they won't believe 
it!) and when they are sick, or tired, or hungry, 
or in trouble of any kind, they want their 
mothers. And if they can't have their mothers, 
why, then big sister will do. Girls, of course, 
want their mothers, too. But some way or an- 
other, girls seem to have a way of 'tending to 
themselves and almost every sister seems natur- 
ally to "mother" her brothers. 

Probably the reason that "run to mother" is 
the first thought of boys and girls when in 
trouble is that, as a rule, mother is always on 
hand to comfort and caress and to apply the 
salve or liniment or iodine or boric acid. If 
you are ill and have to stay in bed, it is mother 
who bathes you, brings the hot-water bag or the 
electric pad, gives you a spoonful of medicine 
every hour, tucks the bedclothes in "so you won't 



262 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

take cold," and then sits by the bedside and reads 
to you ; or if you begin to feel sleepy, it is mother 
who sits and holds your hand; and when you 
are well enough to eat real food instead of 
gruel, what dainties mother prepares and brings 
up to you on the prettiest tray with the daintiest 
china! 

Of course, father is all right, too ; but fathers 
have to be away earning the money to pay the 
doctor, and to pay for the medicine and the food ; 
they can't stay at home and hold your hand! 
And then, that isn't the way fathers usually help. 
You don't seem to mind letting mother see you 
cry — some way you know down deep in your 
heart that no matter how big you are or how 
old, whether you have grown to be as tall as 
mother herself and are in the high school, or 
even after you are really a man or woman and 
perhaps have a business and a home of your 
own, to mother you will always really be "my 
dear baby." 

Now here is where fathers are "different." 
When you are ever so little they begin calling 
you "little man" or "little woman." You must 
never let father see you cry! I should say not! 
Especially if you're a boy. To shed tears is un- 
manly. Father wants you to be brave and face 
things with a strong heart— and sometimes hand! 
He gives you wise advice, shows you how to 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 263 

hold your head high, how to meet temptations, 
how to amount to something in the world, and 
how to be of service to the world. 

When ^'the boy" was about to leave home, 
first for camp and then presumably for overseas, 
to fight for liberty and peace on earth, it was 
father who took him into the library or into 
''the den" for a long talk about the real things 
of life; it was father who attended to all the 
business part of everything; it was father who 
gripped his hand when he said good-by until 
the boy thought the bones would break. But 
it was mother who crept into the boy's room 
the night before he left and sat beside the bed- 
side and held his hand — oh, so tight! — and said 
all sorts of sweet things for him to remember 
always, and gave him the Bible she had when 
she was a girl with her picture pasted in the 
front of the little book; and it was mother who 
cried. Of course, mothers may cry — no matter 
how brave they are — although fathers mustn't — 
no matter how sad they are — ^^so that is the rea- 
son why their boys want their mothers when they 
themselves feel that they must shed tears. 

To a soldier who had been home on furlough 
some one said when he returned to camp, "Well, 
I suppose your mother was glad to see you." 
"Oh, you should have seen her cry when I came 
away!" "But she was glad to see you come 



264 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

home even for a little while, wasn't she?" "Oh, 
yes indeed ! You should have seen her cry when 
I arrived." 

When the soldiers are in the hospital, they 
turn to the nurses as they would to their mothers. 
A young man, coming out of ether, talks to his 
mother, calls for her, and the nurse must then 
take the mother's place. He tells her his 
secrets. He tells her how matters stand at home, 
how he feels about everything, and what he in- 
tends to do when he gets back. 

"Is there a father or mother in America who 
would not go to a wounded son in France at 
great cost of money and sacrifice, if the Govern- 
ment would allow it?" asked the Red Cross. 
"You cannot go to France, but you can send an 
American Red Cross nurse, who will care for 
your boy as tenderly as a mother and as skill- 
fully as a physician. The Red Cross nurse 
meets your boy with a smile when he is brought 
into the hospital, administers to his every need 
throughout his sickness, councils him to lead an 
upright life and bids him God-speed as he goes 
back to his regiment." "Yes," adds another, 
"we're the father and mother, and the uncle and 
the aunt, and the doctor, the solicitor, the banker, 
and the parson." 

For incidentally it might be said that the Red 
Cross did not wait for cases of extremity to ex- 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 265 

tend its many-sided cooperation. The Ameri- 
can soldier anywhere under any circumstances 
might expect any sort of thoughtful attention. 
There, for instance, was Edgar Ranney, who in 
the spring of '19 was on his way home. His 
division was to sail on the ship — on June 8. 
When the men reached the port of embarkation, 
Edgar found that he had a very sore throat. He 
consulted the doctor. The doctor said, "Tonsil- 
litis. Better go to the hosptal for a few days." 
Arrived at the hospital, Edgar was put to bed. 
Then he remembered that he had not sent the 
promised cable to his parents notifying them of 
the date of sailing. Soon a Red Cross person 
came to the bedside and asked whether he could 
give any service. "Yes, thank you," said Edgar, 
"I was just on my way to cable my folks when 
I was sent here. If you'll attend to that, I'll 
be awfully grateful. You know our division 
sails the 8th." Then giving his father's address, 
Edgar took from his "kit" a $5 bill and handed 
it to his Red Cross friend. "Pay for the cable 
out of this," he said, "and keep the change for 
the Red Cross. I don't know how much it will 
cost to send the message." 

The Red Cross man consulted with the doctor 
and the commanding officer before sending the 
cablegram but did not disturb Edgar by telling 
him that he would not be able to leave the hos- 



266 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

pital for another two weeks, and considerately 
kept out of sight in order to avoid questions. 
And as Edgar had performed his duty by at- 
tending to the sending of the message, he dis- 
missed it from his mind and never thought about 
it again until he was more than half way home. 
Then it came to him like a flash! Oh, what a 
shame! How the folks must have been worry- 
ing! 

However, when the ship pulled up at the dock, 
Edgar was among those looking eagerly for 
familiar faces. And sure enough, there on the 
dock, looking as handsome and happy as any two 
dear people could look, were Mother and Dad. 
"How did you know I was coming in to-day?" 
asked the young man after the first greetings 
were over. "Why, we got your cablegram," re- 
plied his father. "But didn't it say I should ar- 
rive two weeks ago?" "No, the date was right," 
said his father, looking perplexed. Edgar 
pondered the question a moment. Then he 
burst out, "Well, I'll say Bully for that Red 
Cross man ! He realized that I wouldn't be able 
to leave when I expected, and he never sent 
that cable until he was sure! That's regular 
Red Cross efficiency and thoughtfulness." And 
then he related the whole story to his parents. 
About two weeks later, a Red Cross official en- 
velope addressed to Edgar Ranney arrived at his 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 267 

home, with $2 enclosed as change from the cable- 
gram! 

THE CARE COMMITTEE 

Tribute is here due to those women who were 
enrolled as members of the "Care committee." 
This committee is immediately notified of the 
arrival in any hospital of an American soldier. 
Every one of these soldiers is visited at least 
once a week and supplied with comforts, letters 
are written for him and everything possible done 
to make him comfortable. 

A wounded soldier lying in the hospital, 
swathed in bandages, burning with fever, re- 
ceived a letter from a friend at home saying 
that his mother was very ill and was alone with 
no one to take care of her. When one of these 
visitors told him not to worry, that the Red 
Cross would send some one at once to look after 
his mother and see that she needed nothing, the 
miserable, homesick boy raised his eyes with the 
tears brimming over, and after thanking her re- 
peatedly said, "You are only the second lady I 
have spoken to since I enlisted eleven months 
ago." 

VOLUNTARY AID DETACHMENTS 

Another class of women who deserve recogni- 
tion among the faithful plucky workers are the 



268 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

V. A. D. (Voluntary Aid Detachments) of the 
British Red Cross and the Nurses' Aides of the 
American Red Cross. They were women who 
were not trained nurses, but who were proficient 
in first aid, home nursing, cooking, domestic 
science, and who were willing to do scrubbing 
or carpentering, or fire building, or any disagree- 
able task that came to hand. They have been 
characterized by the doctors as "perfectly 
wonderful in spirit and in service." 

The last message to reach this country from 
a United States marine who was killed in France 
was written to a Red Cross official, telling him 
that the soldier had come to love the Red Cross 
banner as well as he loves the Stars and Stripes. 
"If you could only see," he wrote, "the expres- 
sions of comfort and cheer which your generous 
donations bring to the dirty, weary countenances 
of recipients, you would feel highly remunerated 
for your outlay of time, labor and money. I 
want the American people, and especially all 
members of the Red Cross, to know just how 
every soldier feels toward your great organiza- 
tion." Only a few days after he wrote the 
letter, and before he had an opportunity to mail 
it, the gallant fellow was killed in action. 

Another American soldier when leaving the 
hospital said to his Red Cross nurse, "Good-by, 
little mother, I only hope you and I can go home 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 269 

on the same boat; wouldn't I like to stand be- 
side you while we saluted the Goddess of Lib- 
erty together!" 

THE AMERICAN NURSE 

A Red Cross chaplain has said that the mere 
presence of an American nurse helped wonder- 
fully to buoy up the spirit and morale of the 
American troops, and was an important factor in 
returning wounded men to duty. "There is 
more or less of a belief," he said, "that once a 
man was wounded he was sent to a hospital and 
then home. That was not so. An enormous 
proportion of the wounded were made well at 
the hospitals and then sent back to their com- 
mands." 

"You can't realize," he continued, "what it 
meant to have American nurses. You can't 
imagine what it meant to a wounded man to be 
carried from the field on a stretcher — although 
the bearers as a rule were as gentle as men can 
be — to have his wounds cleansed and dressed 
hurriedly at the dressing station, then hurried 
ofif in an ambulance to the hospital and put under 
ether, then when he comes out of the ether to find 
himself in a clean bed 'tucked up' by an Ameri- 
can nurse. 

"Such a man invents all sorts of excuses to 
keep the nurse by his bedside tucking him up. 



270 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

One chap, I remember, kept finding wrinkles 
in the sheet and pointing them out to the nurse, 
until she discovered that as fast as she could 
straighten out the wrinkles on one side of the 
bed, they appeared on the other side. Those 
wrinkles just seemed to grow! Of course, she 
humored the sick man awhile, and then laughed 
and let him know she saw through his trick. 
He just wanted to keep her there, and that was 
his way of doing it! 'Well,' she said as she 
laughed, 'is there anything else I can do?' 
'Yes,' he replied, 'just stand there awhile so I can 
see you — ^it m-akes it seem so like- home.' " 

A soldier patient of Clara Barton's during the 
days of the Civil War said of her, "She just 
mothered us and made us well in spite of our- 
selves." And this "mothering" has been the dis- 
tinguishing mark of Red Cross service in war 
times ever since. 

All nurses in army hospitals and in naval hos- 
pitals at home and abroad soon learned the 
peculiar "lingo" of the soldiers and sailors and 
were able to converse with their patients in their 
own war dialect. That fact drew nurse and 
patient a little closer together and also caused 
many a good laugh. The successful nurse must 
become a real "pal" to the wounded man in order 
to be of greatest help. "They are always so 
grateful," says one nurse; "a mere smile or a 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 271 

glass of water will meet such appreciation and 
thanks. When a nurse enters the room the 
soldiers wave their hands just like boys— and 
they most of them were such boys!" she added. 
Almost every nurse, when speaking of the men, 
used that phrase sooner or later in some part of 
her narrative— "they were such boys." 

Being "boys," they wanted their mothers or 
sisters, and so the usual term for a faithful be- 
loved nurse was "little mother" or "sister," and 
"over there" the name was used generally also 
by the peasants and town people as a friendly 
greeting. "It is pleasant to be everywhere 
saluted in the neighborhood," says a Red Cross 
worker. "Even the tiny boys salute or take off 
their caps, and all the children say, 'Bonjour, ma 
soeur,' or 'ma mere.' " Our nurses adopted the 
European custom and dropped the formal use 
of the last name, taking the gentler one of 
"sister." "Max Mueller says the old Aryan 
word for sister meant comforter. If this be 
true, no better name suits the calling of these 
devoted women," says Miss Boardman. In 
Russia, the nurses reported "It is most gratify- 
ing to know the affection that springs up for the 
'Amerikansky' Sisters." In Serbia, "They all 
love the 'Sestras Americana.' " 

"Say, sister, stop for a bit of talk, it's good 
to have somebody to say a word to," a wounded 



2^2 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Britisher would say to his nurse. It was every- 
where the same. The men never tired of tell- 
ing their experiences or of rehearsing the horri- 
ble events of the battlefield. The nurses listened 
sympathetically, trying to turn the conversation 
as soon as possible to pleasanter topics. Not 
that the soldiers complained. That they seldom 
did. They just wanted to *'tell things" and to 
"talk things over" as they would at home. They 
were most remarkably brave and cheerful dur- 
ing the long days of convalescence. ''Case after 
case of serious wounds the sisters note; there a 
man whose poor frost-bitten feet mean amputa- 
tion, here only a boy, and yet the light forever 
blotted out by the cruel shot that passed through 
both his eyes. Always the same good courage. 
No matter how badly they are wounded or 
maimed for life, they talk and laugh the whole 
day long. Brave, cheery fellows, making the 
best of it to the world outside. One feels like 
mothering them all ; some are so very young; and 
the older ones, too, need their share of mother- 
ing," reads a nurse's diary.^ 

In a hospital in London which was supported 
entirely by U. S. A. money, although it was con- 
nected with the British Red Cross, there lay a 
lad of only twenty years. A cruel bullet had 
entered one of his eyes and passed out through 

iBoardman, Mabel T. op. cit. 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 273 

the other, so he would never see the light of day 
again. The brave fellow suffered fearfully, and 
cried out at intervals, "Oh, God, help me to bear 
my pain." When the nurse came to bring 
him cocoa or hot milk or other quieting drink, 
he clung to her hand like a frightened baby as 
he murmured, "Thank you, Sister." Some- 
times he would say in pathetic apology, "I'd 
sleep if I could. Sister— you know I'd sleep if I 
could." The lad had no family but longed to 
see his sweetheart, "Violet," whose name was 
tattooed on his arm. As the expense of the 
trip was too great for the girl, the American 
nurse sent along some American money which 
had been given her for the benefit of her pa- 
tients, and Violet— just eighteen— came with her 
mother and stayed in the neighborhood for 
four days over the time of a necessary opera- 
tion.^ 

"The British Tommies are the dearest things 
in the world, such refinement and delicacy of 
feeling— and sense of humor — and kindness 
among themselves. It is a privilege not only 
to nurse them, but to know them. They are 
more than entertaining. They have a lingo of 
their own, all sorts of expressions, that mean 
nothing until you learn them." ^ 

Our American boys were also the "dearest 

1 Dexter, Mary. "In the Soldier's Service." Houghton Mifflin 
Company, 191 8. 



274 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

things." One of our nurses writing home said: 
''I never knew so many fine young men existed. 
They are simply splendid. From the smiling 
faces on the pillows one would think they were 
resting up for a party. It is most unusual to see 
a disgruntled face, and if a limb is gone they 
are planning on what they can do where that 
particular member will not be missed. We are 
going to have many of them who will have to 
learn new trades and I often do a lot of think- 
ing about the future. Some of these boys have 
given an awful lot to this war — much more than 
those who have given all. ... If you could only 
see the smiling faces on the pillows, no matter 
what the condition of the body, and see those 
homely old bathrobes and slippers we packed, 
you'd all feel that a lame back was a pleasure. 
I know I could come back there now and work 
harder than I ever did and feel I was doing 
mighty little. But I must not preach — condi- 
tions are different, that's all, and you are all do- 
ing such wonderful work. I quake when I 
think what it would all be were there no Red 
Cross and were there not noble women working 
hard to make the Red Cross what it is. The 
soldiers all love the Red Cross." 

The "nursing care" of the American nurses 
was perhaps a bit less perfunctory than the at- 
tention given by some of the foreign-trained 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 275 

nurses. The American nurse has a way of com- 
ing around when a man is feeling especially 
tired or ache-y or blue, and bathing him or rub- 
bing his back with alcohol. "Oh, how they do 
love to have their backs rubbed," says Margaret. 
"You know how your back does ache and gets 
so sore when you have to stay in bed for sev- 
eral weeks, and how restful it is to have mother 
sponge you with saleratus water or rub you with 
alcohol." 

"Probably the greatest single service rendered 
by the Red Cross home forces was the supply 
of trained nurses which furnished our hospitals. 
The Army Medical Corps trains a few nurses, 
but could never hope to turn out the large 
number provided through Miss Delano's depart- 
ment. If we needed a thousand nurses for a 
given work, we telegraphed the War Depart- 
ment. The War Department notified Miss 
Delano. And the nurses arrived on schedule," 
said Major-General Ireland, Surgeon-General, 
U. S. A. 

MISS JANE A. DELANO 

While the term "little mother" was so gener- 
ally and appropriately applied to the Red Cross 
nurse, the Mother of all these American little 
mothers was the noble woman, then holding the 
position of Director General of the Department 



276 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

of Nursing of the American Red Cross, Miss 
Jane A. Delano, who has been styled the 
"Florence Nightingale of the World War." 
Under her direction more than 30,000 nurses 
were recruited through the American Red Cross 
for service in the army and navy after the United 
States entered the great conflict. She used to 
say that she felt as if the Red Cross nurses were 
"her children," and that she was responsible for 
them. When some of the nurses who had been 
sent to Serbia during the first part of the war 
returned to America, Miss Delano met them at 
the pier on their arrival in New York; their 
weary and worn condition impressed her so that 
she said she felt that she could never let them 
leave her again, that she must somehow make 
up to them for all they had suffered. Through- 
out the war, she did all she possibly could for 
the comfort and protection of the nurses every- 
where. 

It was while Miss Delano was a young girl 
that the call to relieve suffering humanity came 
to her, and after her preliminary education she 
began fitting herself for the profession of a nurse. 
Two years after her graduation, she rendered her 
first patriotic service to her country in 1888 by 
volunteering to nurse yellow fever victims in 
Jacksonville, Florida. Although at that time 
medical science had not decided that the mos- 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" ^'jy 

quito was a yellow fever carrier, Miss Delano 
had taken precautionary measures, insisting on 
the use of mosquito netting by her nurses, with 
the most satisfactory results. The following 
years were spent in nursing, studying, teaching, 
superintending, and directing in various parts of 
the country. 

When the American Red Cross, following its 
reorganization in 1905, entered into an agree- 
ment with the American Nurses' Association for 
the purpose of developing a nursing reserve for 
the army nurse corps, Miss Delano was ap- 
pointed chairman of the committee in charge 
of the work. She was also named as superin- 
tendent of the army nurse corps by the surgeon- 
general, in which capacity she visited the Philip- 
pine Islands, China, Japan, and Hawaii. Due 
to her untiring efforts, 8000 carefully selected 
nurses were available for government service at 
the time the United States entered the war, and 
her leadership was largely responsible for the 
success of the nurse-recruiting campaign which 
followed. 

When the Spanish War was in progress, Miss 
Delano was impressed with the thought that the 
Red Cross in time of war should be able to re- 
spond more quickly to the call for relief. She 
believed the hospitals and nurses should be so 
trained and equipped that if war should ever 



278 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

come again, there should be no confusion, but 
that in answer to the call "Will you go next 
week?" or "Be ready the week after next," every 
one would respond automatically, as it were. 
So wisely did Miss Delano work out this plan 
after she became Director General, that it was 
largely due to her foresight that six hospitals 
were ready for duty overseas within six weeks 
after the United States declared war. 

"As head of the Nursing Service of the 
American Red Cross she bore one of the heaviest 
responsibilities of the war. She bore it so well 
that whatever unavoidable complications might 
occur in other branches of the service, there was 
never for one moment a shortage of the nurses 
it was her business to supply." 

The soldiers and their welfare were the first 
thought of Miss Delano's mind and heart during 
war times. "No matter about the rest of us, so 
long as they are being cared for," she would 
say. "No man in the army of the United States 
at home or overseas can fail to revere the merci- 
ful woman who assisted in alleviating the suffer- 
ings of the wounded and in easing the last hours 
of those who were fatally stricken," says Secre- 
tary of War Baker. "As one faithful and potent 
and capable in that ministry, our gratitude for 
all time is due Miss Delano." 

It has been said that "Florence Nightingale 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 279 

was the pioneer in the field of nursing, and Jane 
Delano was the one who carried to its highest 
development all that Miss Nightingale had con- 
ceived." "Even as the Crimean War differed 
from the World War in its scale and its methods, 
so did the circumstances surrounding Miss De- 
lano's activities differ from those of Miss Night- 
ingale's time. They have been compared — or 
contrasted — in this way: Florence Nightingale 
had to overcome the protests of the British Gov- 
ernment before she could go to the relief of the 
wounded in the Crimea — ^Jane Delano was 
backed by the United States Government, in- 
deed, she was its agent, when she sent relief to 
the wounded and suffering across the seas; Miss 
Nighingale succeeded in getting less than half a 
hundred nurses to accompany her — Miss De- 
lano's nurses were numbered by the thousands; 
Miss Nightingale went abroad at the head of her 
company of nurses — Miss Delano sent out her 
thousands, remaining at headquarters to recruit 
and send out more. While these two heroines 
of modern army nursing differed necessarily in 
so many ways, they cherished one common aim, 
to secure the best possible care for the soldiers. 
Florence Nightingale had the privilege of more 
direct contact, going in person to the men in the 
hospitals; Miss Delano had the privilege of 
working through a highly trained personnel." ^ 

1 Address by Mary M. Riddell. 



28o GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Even as they differed in their activities, so 
the two women differed in the way their lives 
ended. To Miss Nightingale was given the op- 
portunity to return to her homeland, where she 
was to be highly honored and to live for many 
years. Miss Delano died abroad, in one of the 
many hospitals she herself had organized. She 
left the United States, January 2, 1919, for the 
purpose of maki-ng a personal survey of the nurs- 
ing situation in France, Italy, the Balkans and 
other countries where the American Red Cross 
is engaged in work. She was taken ill soon after 
arriving in France, and died April 15. 

''She had been stricken at a base port on the 
very day on which she was to have sailed for 
home, her mission overseas accomplished. It 
would be hard to picture a death more military 
or finer than that," says Dr. Joel Goldthwait. 
A posthumous award of the Distinguished Serv- 
ice Cross acknowledges her service in mobilizing 
the nursing forces of the nation in the war and in 
directing their service at home and overseas. 

''The profession of nursing, from Florence 
Nightingale to Edith Cavell, has been rarely 
fortunate in its leaders. At times of grave crisis, 
there has always been found the woman to meet 
the emergency; and the service of Miss Delano 
in the great war was a new demonstration of a 
glorious tradition," says one well acquainted 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 281 

with her work. The qualities attributed to Miss 
Cavell might be well applied also to Miss De- 
lano, "courage, faith, and faithfulness, self-giv- 
ing in work and mercy." 

At the very time memorial services were held 
in England and elsewhere for Edith Cavell, the 
brave English nurse who gave her life for her 
countrymen, other memorial services were being 
held in many cities of America in honor of Miss 
Delano. Thousands of nurses assembled, cover- 
ing the entire floor of large assembly halls like a 
living bouquet in their varied uniforms of white 
and blue and red. Here would be grouped sev- 
eral hundred army nurses from the nearest mili- 
tary camps, with white dresses, blue capes 
thrown back over the shoulder to reveal the 
bright red lining, and white caps with the tiny 
red cross in front; just behind them, another 
group of navy nurses, in blue uniform with black 
sailor hats; on each side of these groups could 
be seen hundreds of oversea nurses, in uniforms 
of so very dark a shade of blue as to appear 
black, black sailor hats, and a broad band with 
a large red cross around the left arm; as a back- 
ground for these three groups, were arranged 
the nurses from various hospitals, in blue dresses 
with big white aprons, bibs, and caps. 

Speaking of nurses' uniforms, "The red lining 
of those capes meant more than any one can 



282 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

know," said an army chaplain. ''To the enlisted 
men and to the officers, alike, it meant a lot just 
to see the color of that red cape going across 
the field, that flame of brightness in surrounding 
gloom, the only cheerful thing anywhere. We 
were as glad as the nurses themselves to have 
them get as near as possible to 'the front' " ^ 

nurses' work and risk 

"The nurses overseas were called upon to do 
ten times as much as a nurse is expected to do 
ordinarily," said Dr. Goldthwait, who served 
overseas for twenty-two months, much of the 
time as chief surgeon of the A. E. F. with the 
grade of colonel. "The way in which the 
nurses stood up under the demands upon them 
was superb. In their minds there was never the 
thought of danger. If they were called upon 
to go forward, they went forward eagerly. 
They were always seeking the places of the 
greatest toil and the greatest risk." 

"Yes," said another chaplain, "the American 
nurses in the base hospital were all eager to go 
up to the hospital nearest the front line. Nurses 
had to work under stress never known under 
similar circumstances, yet they were always ask- 
ing, 'Can't we get some assignment up nearer 
the front?' I suppose the nurses felt a little 

1 Chaplain Sherrard Billings of the Red Cross. 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 283 

more closely in contact with war when as near 
the front as possible. Chiefly, however, I am 
convinced their desire to get up to the advanced 
hospitals was prompted by the lure of danger. 
Women are quite as brave as men — even a little 
braver. Although," and the chaplain chuckled 
at the recollection, "one of the nurses did con- 
fess to me that she was dreadfully frightened 
when an airplane dropped bombs overhead in 
the night and the shrapnel began to fly in all di- 
rections. She said she always got up out of bed, 
said her prayers, and then crept into bed with 
another nurse — who was probably just as fright- 
ened as she was!" 

Sbme of the most able nurses were chosen for 
exceptionally hazardous duty behind the lines 
with a mobile unit (that is, one that moved about 
from place to place as needed), treating non- 
transportable cases. They were constantly ex- 
posed to shell fire and German air raids, but 
stuck courageously to their posts. To some of 
these nurses has come the distinction of being 
decorated with the French Croix de Guerre for 
bravery on the battlefield; and to a few has been 
awarded a British medal of the Royal Order of 
the Red Cross. 

Red Cross nurses never shirked or ran away 
from duty. Sometimes the veriest mouse of a 
nun suddenly became a very lion of woman- 



284 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

kind when her patients were threatened. The 
name of Sister Julia, the brave nun who was 
decorated by President Poincaire, has become 
almost a household word the world around. 
When the Germans took possession of the town 
and would have invaded even the sacred halls 
of the convent which was then being used as a 
hospital where the gentle Sisters were caring 
for the wounded and ill, Sister Julia met them 
at the door. In spite of her protests they en- 
tered. As they marched to the rooms where the 
cots were arranged with their burdens of sick 
men, Sister Julia placed herself in an attitude of 
defiance. "You shall not touch them!" she 
cried, "they are my children !" Upon investiga- 
tion, the intruders found that among the soldiers 
she was defending, there were many Germans 
as well as French; so they saluted and marched 
away. 

The Red Cross nurses are not respecters of 
persons. They consider only the safety and 
comfort of their patients. Some very funny 
things happened once in a while. For instance, 
the story is told of a nurse who was guarding 
a weak soldier from excitement. He could not 
carry on a conversation without coughing badly, 
so the nurse allowed no one to speak to him. 
One day she was, for some reason, called into the 
next ward and while there she heard her patient 



'THE GREATEST MOTHER" 285 

cough. She rushed out of the ward, crossed 
into her own ward, fairly flying to the bed where 
the coughing man was talking with a visitor. 
The nurse bristled with excitement. Like a hen 
rescuing her chicken from a hawk, she pounced 
on the hapless visitor and dragged him away, 
saying angrily, "Don't you know no one must 
talk to that man? Do you want to kill him?" 
No one knows how much more she would have 
said had not other attendants come to the rescue 
of the caller, who was n'o less a personage than 
the Prince of Wales. 

Another episode in which royalty figured oc- 
curred in a Belgian hospital. Fire broke out 
one Sunday evening while the king and queen 
were visiting the hospital. A nurse who was 
trying to get a patient out looked for assistance, 
and not knowing to whom she was speaking 
turned to a man standing near and said, "I don't 
know who you are, but I want some one to help 
me with this patient." As he lent a hand, he 
smiled and told her he was the king. 

A day's program has been described by an 
American nurse in a French hospital. "The 
first thing I do, after a word of greeting to each 
patient, is to review the ward and see that it is 
well washed, in order, and no spoons or bottles 
out of place, and to start instruments boiling. 
After that, begin the temperatures. Along with 



286 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the temperatures go face-washing and mouth- 
rinsing. . . . About 8 130 the doctor makes his 
appearance. . . . About 9 A. M. I begin the dress- 
ings. . . . Bell rings for soup at 10:45. . . . 
Immediately after lunch I spend an hour or so 
setting to rights the surgical dressings room, 
doing little services, and distributing cakes or 
bonbons. It is amazing how a bit of pepper- 
mint will console a soldier when a smile goes 
with it! . . . Dressing all the afternoon until it 
is time for temperatures; then soup for the 
soldiers; then mine, which is soon finished; then 
massage for those who need it; after which I 
prepare my soothing drinks. . . . It is the sweet- 
est time of the day, for then one puts off the 
nurse and becomes the mother; and we have such 
fun over the warm drinks. They are nice and 
sweet and hot, and the soldiers adore their 
'American drinks.' " ^ 

To this nurse's ward was brought a man who 
was nothing more than a living skeleton, with 
wounds in back and hands and shoulder, filthy 
and nearly dead. He was so weak he could not 
lift a finger and nourishment could be given him 
only a few drops at a time. However, the nurse 
fed him on malted milk and fresh eggs, kept his 
body clean and his wounds properly tended. 
His knees were in such condition that it seemed 

1 "Mademoiselle Miss." 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 287 

probable he could never walk even if he recov- 
ered; or if he vs^alked at all, it would be on tip- 
toe always. The plucky nurse would not be 
balked. She contrived an apparatus for 
straightening his legs and feet. And as a result 
of her devotion and skill and perseverance, the 
soldier lived and was able to walk when he left 
the hospital. Such men send back postcards and 
letters to the nurses, beginning ''Dear little 
mamma," or "My good little mamma." 

One patient, an Arab, at first was savage and 
solemn; finally, however, he was conquered by 
the nurse and smiled as she brought him his 
"soothing drink," saying, "Thanks, mamma." 
When asked why he called the nurse by that 
name, he explained that she was' just like a 
mamma. The man was quite broken-hearted 
when sent from the hospital, and as the nurse 
tucked the blankets about him in the automobile 
the last words he spoke to her were: "Au 
revoir, mamma." From the hospital to which 
he was transferred he sent a card daily for a 
long time, signed "The child who does not for- 
get his mamma." 

Home! That was the next word after 
Mother! In France "A. V. A. D. was holding 
a cup to the lips of a dying man. Looking at 
her with a dim curiosity he asked faintly, 'Where 
do you come from?' 'I come from Home,' she 



288 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

replied. A smile spread over the soldier's face 
and in a short while he was dead. Such was the 
secret of his last pleasant thought — she came 
from Home." ^ 

*'A little French nurse on her way home to 
convalesce, after an illness in the Orient, had 
volunteered to help on the hospital ship during 
her journey. Noticing that a man (a Bulgar) 
was cold, she drew a blanket over him and tucked 
it under his elbow to lift his wasted arm from 
the hard pole of the stretcher on which he was 
lying, while waiting his turn to have his wounds 
dressed. Her white veil framed her young 
Madonna-like face and floated over her 
shoulders. The old man looked up, feebly 
smiled and murmured, 'Mother.' As I turned 
toward the door to hide the tears which came 
to my eyes, a Bulgar, waiting there to have his 
bandages changed, attracted my attention. All 
the Bulgarians were under the care of a young 
Lieutenant Doctor. I said, 'You handle the 
Bulgars as if they were brothers.' He replied, 
'No man is an enemy after he is wounded.' " ^ 

BUREAU OF COMMUNICATION 

The very fact that the Red Cross was doing 

1 Barker, Granville. "The Red Cross in France." 

2 Morton, Rosalie Slaughter. "With the French Fleet of Mercy." 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 289 

its best to take the place of ''Mother" and "Dad" 
to the boys over there, brought to its representa- 
tives a keen realization of the yearning of the 
parents' hearts for news. "If this were really 
my boy, and I were at home while he is out here 
fighting, wouldn't I long to know just how and 
where he is?" was the overwhelming thought 
that would strike deep to every worker's heart. 

''There appears to be no limit to the suffer- 
ings war inflicts, and perhaps none are harder 
to bear than the agony and suspense over the 
fate of some loved one in the fighting line. To 
lighten this pathetic burden, to bring the news 
from the front, the Red Cross accepts a still 
further duty. The soldier too ill to write him- 
self may by this aid send a letter of comfort from 
his hospital bed, and the final story of some brave 
life, often so longed for by aching hearts at 
home, will not be lost." ^ It is the testimony of 
the searchers who have been in different hospi- 
tals, that "the British Tommy writes first to his 
sweetheart; the French poilu, being older and 
married, writes to his wife; but the American 
soldier thinks only of his mother." 

"Keeping the men in service in communica- 
tion with their families at home is one of the 
obligations assumed by the Red Cross under its 
charter. It was not until something happened 
to prevent the soldier from writing home that 

iBoardman, Mabel T. op. cit. 



290 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the Red Cross service became necessary. 
Soldiers in good health usually correspond regu- 
larly with the folks 'back home,' but when a 
soldier becomes a 'casualty' — and in a military 
sense this me-ant that he was either sick, wounded, 
dead, missing or a prisoner — an outside agency 
has to inform his anxious relatives why he has 
failed to write them. It is this function which 
the Bureau o*f Communication of the Red Cross 
performs. 

''Obtaining information concerning the fate 
of American soldiers in the thick of the fighting 
in France has been the most important part of 
the work performed by the Bureau of Communi- 
cation. The 4000 miles that separated a mother 
from the battlefield where her son was offering 
his life for his country rendered her suspense 
well-nigh unbearable. Each day she scanned 
the casualty lists, afraid to read them carefully 
for fear she would see a name she did not want 
to see. Occasionally she saw a name that made 
her heart stop beating. It was similar to her 
son's. She took comfort in the fact that there 
was the difference of a letter or so. The most 
uncommon names were bound to appear again 
and again in an army of 2,000,000. She had 
been told over and over that the casualty lists 
were not made public until the families of the 
men had been notified by the War Department, 
but this did not relieve her anxiety. 



'THE GREATEST MOTHER" 291 

"These requests are turned over to the Bureau 
of Communication, by which they are forwarded 
to Paris. One of the Red Cross searchers is as- 
signed to the task of locating the object of the 
query. When the soldier is found, a report is 
returned to Red Cross headquarters in Washing- 
ton and not long thereafter finds its way to the 
anxious inquirer. In most cases they are ac- 
companied by a postal card in the soldier's own 
writing, the Red Cross providing cards for this 
purpose.'"' 

"What's your outfit?" asks the "searcher" 
standing by the bed of a convalescent soldier. 

"Co. , 28th Infantry," answers the man. 

The searcher glances carefully down the list of 
names on the paper she carries. On and on, 
until she suddenly pauses. "Co. , 28th In- 
fantry," she repeats; "did you happen to know 
So and So in your Company?" Sometimes the 
soldier shakes his head, and no suggestions on the 
part of the searcher can prompt the man to any 
recollections of the soldier named. Frequently, 
how^ever, the face lights up, perhaps to fall into 
shadow again. "Oh, yes, I knew him. Why, 
he was from my home state, and — " he continues 
telling what he knows of the character, action, 
and fate of his former comrade-in-arms. 

The searchers were sometimes men, sometimes 
women, and they did much in the way of good 



292 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

cheer as they performed their tasks. Elizabeth, 
a young college woman, while employed as 
searcher assumed the duty of taking the sick 
men's minds off their troubles. With some, she 
exchanged English lessons for lessons in French; 
others were provided with picture puzzles, and 
that innocent diversion frequently saved the day 
for a poor fellow just ready to cry; when all else 
failed, this jolly girl, accompanying herself on 
the guitar, sang a song about "The Little Pigs 
Lie with Their Tails Curled Up," which always 
resulted in a wave of laughter throughout the 
ward. When this willing worker left for home, 
the patients sent all sorts of messages for her to 
deliver to their families. One man asked her to 
call on his wife in New York and "be sure to 
sing the song of the little pigs." ^ 

It was this searcher who found a group of 
gassed men in a hospital, and discovered their 
greatest pleasure was in reading. And what do 
you suppose they preferred above all other 
authors in the small collection of books they had 
at hand? Emerson! The discussions which 
the young college woman and these injured men 
enjoyed in the following days were deep enough 
and earnest enough to make all pains and aches 
forgotten for a time at least. 

Taste in literature varied, and many rather 

1 Putnam, Elizabeth Cabot. "On Duty and Off." 



*'THE GREATEST MOTHER" 293 

startling revelations were -made from time to 
time. Alice Regan Rice tells the story of a 
soldier to whom a novel was offered, and who 
made this surprising reply: "No, I thank you; 
I don't want to read nothing 'til I see how this 
here turns out." He was reading the Bible. 

Day by day the searchers went through their 
lists and their hospitals. Every item of any pos- 
sible importance was reported to each office and 
carefully filed. "In the case of men who died 
of wounds or illness the Red Cross has been able, 
through its searchers, to convey to the family 
'back home' the details of their passing and any 
message they may have left. Where a soldier 
was killed in action and his relatives were 
anxious to know the circumstances attending his 
death, the Red Cross searcher, provided with 
the man's name, company, and regiment, 
managed to get into touch with the man who 
took a part in the same action. From them he 
learned the details of the soldier's end. These 
were forwarded to Washington and there em- 
bodied in a personal letter to the relatives." ^ 

One feature of the bureau's work in Europe 
that has appealed strongly to the families of men 
who have died overseas is the photographing of 
the graves of these American heroes. When- 
ever possible the Red Cross takes pictures of the 

1 Red Cross Bulletin. 



294 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

graves of those who have fallen in the conflict 
and sends these pictures to their relatives. The 
American army has turned over the whole matter 
of grave photography to the American Red 
Cross. Every identified grave in France is to be 
photographed under the plan worked out by the 
army photographers. 

No other class of casualty brought so much 
suffering to the families at home as the report 
that their boys were ''missing in action." "The 
Bureau of Communication took up these cases 
as soon as a member of the American forces was 
reported missing. It did not wait for an inquiry 
from his family. It communicated with the 
family and told what steps were being taken to 
ascertain the fate of the missing one. The Paris 
office instantly instituted inquiries through 
Switzerland into Germany and also turned over 
to the searchers in hospitals and divisions the 
list of missing men. 

''Some of these searchers eventually located 
comrades of the missing man. They learned 
about his part in the engagement, where he had 
been last seen, whether they had any personal 
knowledge of his whereabouts. This evidence, 
often conflicting, was sent to the man's family, 
care being taken to point out the parts that were 
only hearsay. In the majority of cases men re- 
ported missing turned up on German prisoner 
lists. 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 295 

"Red Cross activities on behalf of American 
fighters who were reported missing did not end 
with the announcement that they had been taken 
prisoners. At this point the Bureau of Prison- 
ers' Relief' of the Red Cross took up the work, 
the family of a prisoner being notified that from 
that time on the former bureau would look after 
his welfare. The Bureau of Prisoners' Relief 
is the only organization permitted to send relief 
to Americans in enemy prison camps. This 
authority was delegated to the Red Cross by the 
War Trade Board. 

"This bureau supplied food and clothing to 
prisoners, forwarded mail and money to them, 
and kept them in touch with their families. 
Warehouses stocked with food and supplies for 
American prisoners were established and main- 
tained by the Red Cross at Berne, Switzerland. 
Each prisoner received one twenty-pound parcel 
of food a week, these packages containing beef, 
bread, pork and beans, sugar, coffee, cocoa, oleo- 
margarine, soap, smoking materials, dried fruits 
and other articles, an effort having been made 
to vary the contents as much as possible. These 
parcels, with the exception of a negligible num- 
ber, were acknowledged by the prisoners, a self- 
addressed card for this purpose having been en- 
closed with each package." ^ 

^Red Cross Bulletin. 



296 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE INJURED 

Even as instruments of warfare to-day exceed 
in number and in frightfulness those of preced- 
ing times, so do consideration of and care for the 
victims of such frightfulness exceed anything 
ever before undertaken or contemplated. The 
United States Government and the Red Cross 
do not intend that soldiers who have lost legs 
or arms or both in war shall be turned out of 
hospitals to become burdens to themselves and 
their families; they are to be reconstructed, so 
to speak, in a way which calls for the ingenuity 
and skill of modern surgery. Men are equipped 
with artificial legs and arms which enable them 
after careful training to take their places in the 
world along with the able-bodied. Mutilated 
soldiers in France have been taught by the Red 
Cross in an agricultural training school, to use 
American farm machinery, and agricultural 
methods which they can put into practice. 
Soldiers with artificial arms learn to salute as 
correctly and almost as easily as before. Glass 
eyes and artificial teeth are in great demand by 
those men who have lost their own. A man 
who had lost an eye and three front teeth, and 
who had a fractured wrist and a rib wound, told 
the nurse he "felt worse about the teeth than any- 
thing, and next to the teeth his eye." 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 297 

Most wonderful of all, however, is the recent 
discovery of making masks which are so realistic 
as to deceive the onlooker. The masks are of 
copper deposit formed on a plaster cast in an 
electric bath. They are as light as visiting cards 
and yet durable enough to last a lifetime. If 
the mutilated soldier wore a mustache before he 
was wounded, the mask is supplied with a 
mustache of real hair. Eyelashes are real. If 
a man is blind, eyes made to the likeness of the 
eyes he lost are fastened into the mask. 
Modeled with such wonderful skill, and painted 
with such perfect reproduction of the skin, are 
these masks that it is almost impossible to tell 
that a man is wearing one. They have made 
it possible for soldiers, so mutilated that they 
would be repulsive to their fellow men, to return 
to their families, to obtain work, and to go about 
the streets without attracting notice. Several of 
the American soldiers were fitted out with these 
masks. 

MOTHERING OF SOLDIERS ON LEAVE 

Not alone to the mutilated and crippled, the 
wounded and dying, the men on the battlefield 
and in the hospitals and on the trains going to 
and fro, has the Red Cross ministered. In the 
city of Paris the soldiers "on leave" during the 
war and in the days following the armistice 



298 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

needed "mothering." Generally the French 
soldier hurried home, even though his "permis- 
sion" was only for a week. If, however, the 
journey would be too long to accomplish in so 
short a time, he would doubtless spend that week 
in Paris. And of course an American soldier 
would make all haste to spend his "leave" in the 
magic city. 

Paris is not only the capital and metropolis of 
France, but also its railroad center. Incoming 
afternoon trains brought soldiers w^ho were on 
their way back to the lines at the close of their 
furlough, and who might not be able to leave 
until morning. The cafes closed at half-past 
nine and the moving picture shows ran chiefly 
in the afternoon to save lights. This situation 
left many soldiers who had nothing to do and no- 
where to go. The platforms of the principal 
stations were frequently crowded all night with 
soldiers trying to get a little sleep, homesick men 
whose little taste of home life made renewed dis- 
comfort harder than ever to bear. 

"A Frenchwoman of motherly heart, tireless 
frame, and great executive ability took hold of 
this problem. She got some financial aid from 
Americans and fitted out several disused ofiices 
near the great station with cots and bedding. 
This gave the poilu a place to lie down and 
enjoy a comfortable night's sleep. With the 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 299 

help of our Red Cross and the Fund for French 
Wounded she went further than that. On the 
one night of the week when soldiers came 
through in greater numbers on their way from 
home back to the trenches, she had a party for 
them — a dinner, vaudeville turns by volunteer 
artists, and finally a distribution of bags contain- 
ing little presents made up in America. 

"These bags, usually gaudy little affairs of 
cretonne, had been packed on the sensible plan. 
The gifts in them were nearly all practical — 
safety razors, for example, pieces of toilet soap, 
shaving brushes, combs, sewing kits, safety pins, 
pocket mirrors, pen-knives, nail files. Always 
they contained a pair of stout socks, a wash cloth, 
and writing materials. By way of luxury, there 
were mouth organs, chocolate tablets, jew's- 
harps, and in a few cases chewing gum. 

"For a few minutes there was almost silence 
as the poilus opened their bags and spread out 
the contents on the tables. Then babble broke 
out — jokes called from one table to the other, 
or cries of approval. It was ridiculously like 
a set of small boys opening their Christmas 
stockings. We all have enough child in us to 
like little unexpected presents; and besides, the 
French have a special quality of enjoyment in 
childish things. At the end of one table sat 
a stocky, battered old veteran with a blond 



300 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

mus.tache that drooped over his mouth like a sea 
lion's. He was sorting his pile over and over 
again, inspecting each object and then reinspect- 
ing it. One of the ladies passed an artilleryman 
who had drawn a be-ribboned pin cushion. 

" 'I will save that for my little wife,' he said; 
4t i-s too nice for me!' 

" 'And where is your wife?' asked the Ameri- 
can lady. 

" 'In Lille,' he replied. 'If she is alive — I 
have not heard for nearly three years now. But 
I keep pretty little things like this for her.' 

"At eleven sharp the inexorable madame 
clapped her hands to announce bedtime, and two 
policemen helped her clear the hall. As they 
filed out, hung like pack mules with the worn 
and stained paraphernalia of the trenches, each 
poilu held by a stubby hard finger a dainty little 
bag in flowered cretonne!" ^ 

Soldiers who remained in Paris naturally went 
to the metropolitan Red Cross canteens for 
refreshment and entertainment. Red Cross 
women from America finding themselves in 
Paris always "had an eye out" for the soldiers 
from their own land, and were ready to mother 
them or sister them as the case might require. 
"No mere private ever escapes me," wrote one. 
"I ask his name and home address and write his 

1 Irwin, Will. "A War Reporter's Notebook." 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 301 

mother that I have seen her boy and that he looks 
happy and well. . . . We American Red Cross 
women here of respectable age ought to mother 
these American boys, don't you think so? ... I 
get some wonderful 'thank yous' from home." ^ 
Although a Red Cross woman would be un- 
likely to offer assistance or even simple friendly 
courtesy to an army officer, sometimes it hap- 
pened that these dignitaries sought "first aid" of 
one kind or another from their American sisters. 
Two Red Cross girls spending a few days in 
Paris on their way from one canteen to another, 
had been shopping in company with a middle- 
aged Red Cross woman doctor. As they came 
out of a shop and paused to take one more look 
at the fascinating display in the window — at the 
beautiful things they couldn't buy — "a perfectly 
good Major" — as the girls described him in their 
home letters — who was also looking at the dis- 
play in the window glanced at them, raised his 
hand to his cap, smiled a real American smile, 
and said to the older woman, "Pardon me, but 
may I as one American of another ask a favor? 
I'm leaving for home to-morrow and I want to 
take home some gifts to my wife and daughters. 
I am utterly at loss what to buy ! Won't you and 
these young ladies advise me?" Would they! 
Naturally the Major had more money to spare 

1 Lucas, June 



302 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

for his purchases than the girls had been able to 
spend in their more simple shopping, and how 
they did enjoy selecting silk stockings and gloves 
and dainty lingerie such as they could not afford 
for themselves, for this American man to take 
back to those fortunate girls and their mother 
at home. For American girls do like to spend 
money even if it is not their own, and even 
though they are earnest enough young persons 
to be abroad in war times engaged in canteen 
work. 

One of our Red Cross women doctors stationed 
in Paris used frequently to discover lonely 
American soldiers trying to find their way about 
the city in an attempt to do a bit of sight seeing. 
She found great pleasure in taking them to the 
most famous places of interest, and always con- 
cluded the jaunt with a luncheon or supper in a 
quiet little restaurant where she ordered all the 
"most unusual" things to eat. ''And all the time 
we were eating, he talked to me about his mother, 
always, every time, no matter who he was," says 
the doctor. 

At the Red Cross canteens in Paris the equip- 
ment seemed to be so complete, that a worker 
about to leave for home said to those in charge, 
"I'd like to leave you something to help along, 
but you don't seem to lack anything." "There 
is just one thing the soldiers have wished for that 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 303 

we haven't here," said one of the women, with 
a merry smile, "and that is a parrot!" So the 
worker who was leaving made haste to secure the 
biggest, brightest, most gaily colored, most talka- 
tive, and. most highly gifted parrot she could find 
in Paris and presented it to the canteen as a 
token of friendship from a Red Cross repre- 
sentative from one of the most famous women's 
colleges in the United States. 

Red Cross work in Paris included, besides the 
special lines of help for the soldiers, dispensaries 
and infirmaries for civilians. The American 
Red Cross headquarters established an enviable 
fame for its distribution of hot malted milk. 
Canteens were conducted in the schools of Paris 
to provide supplementary food for school chil- 
dren. The American Red Cross supplied beef, 
ham, potatoes, rice, beans, peas, macaroni, 
cheese, sugar, and other foodstuffs. The French 
children expressed particular satisfaction over a 
Red Cross bun that was made in Red Cross 
bakeshops from a Red Cross recipe. 

A very practical way of showing one's interest 
in a man or a boy — how about girls? — is to give 
him something to eat! Feed him first, and then 
offer him bath, bed, change of raiment, and he 
will be sure you are his friend. The small boy 
may love his mother, but when he comes home 
from school tired and hungry — and perhaps just 



304 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

on the verge of being cross — he really cares more 
about his luncheon or an apple or a cookie first 
than he does about hugging and kissing his 
mother. All mothers know this — and they don't 
care, for they understand. 

In the days of the Spanish-American War, 
when the Red Cross sent a supply of food to the 
soldiers in Cuba, as soon as the men caught a 
glimpse of women in the army wagons, they 
shouted to one another: ''Women! here come 
women! it's the Red Cross. Now we'll have 
something to eat!" When a company of refugee 
Belgian boys between four and twelve years old 
were detrained in southern France, they were 
so tired and hungry and homesick they just cried. 
As they marched from the station to the Casino, 
trying to be brave but finding it so hard, a group 
of rapatries called out to them, "Don't cry, 
you're going to have meat!" The boys repeated 
"Meat, we are going to have meat!" ^ And with 
that the children took fresh courage and marched 
on more quickly. And how they did devour 
meat and potatoes and the hot chocolate! 

MOTHERING WAR ORPHANS 

For the Red Cross, while mothering great 
armies of men, could not neglect or forget her 
other children, those real children in years as 

1 Lucas, June R. 



*THE GREATEST MOTHER" 305 

well as In heart, — those pitiful by-products of 
the war, fatherless, motherless, homeless, half- 
starved, not even half-clothed, wholly unclean, 
and so tired and heart-broken. "In its care of 
the thousands of children it is playing the role 
of mother, and fairy godmother as well, in a be- 
wildering number of ways — all the ways that 
sympathy can devise. At one time certain 
Italian children were getting one piece of bread, 
two radishes, and a portion of orange for the 
heaviest meal of the day. The Red Cross soon 
saw that all had enough to eat. In the schools 
which it is supporting, it is beginning to efface 
from childish minds the memories of flight and 
horror." ^ If ever any living mortals needed 
"mothering" it was those desolate war-orphans. 
Most of them were doubly orphaned, as their 
tags revealed; the most common inscription on 
the children's identification or registration cards 
was, "Father in the trenches, mother killed by 
bomb," or "Father killed in battle, mother killed 
by bomb." 

In describing the arrival of a company of chil- 
dren at the hospital, Mrs. Lucas says: "The 
doctor picked up the smallest child and started 
for the ambulance. A nurse carried another 
and the rest followed eagerly. The ambulance 
men swung them into the car with a flourish that 

1 Red Cross Magazine. 



3o6 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

delighted them, and in a few minutes they were 
chattering away, asking questions, and pressing 
up front to see where they were going. ... By 
the time they reached the hospital they had 
grown quiet. . . . But the nurses and aides were 
so friendly and gay with them, that although they 
parted with their caps and coats rather reluc- 
tantly, they were too hungry to object to supper. 
Of course we all hovered around them. We 
Gould not help it." 

Don't you like that word hover? Can't you 
just see those ''near mothers" hovering around 
these tired, hungry, frightened children? Just 
the way mother and auntie and grandmother 
hover around when you come in from coasting or 
skating, cold and wet, perhaps, and they're so 
anxious about you! Or when you go to your 
grandmother's or your aunt's for a visit, and all 
your admiring relatives gather around, hover 
around, wishing to do something to make you 
comfortable or happy. After all, though, there's 
no one can hover quite equal to a mother! And 
the picture of blessed Red Cross women hover- 
ing around those forlorn babies in their desire 
really to mother them, reminds one of the simile 
"even as a hen gathereth her brood under her 
wings." 

Doris was at this very hospital when these 
children arrived and helped to care for them. 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 307 

How she did grow to love them and how she 
does like to tell stories about them! When she 
shows you her Red Cross scrapbook — or 
^'memory book" — with its souvenirs and photo- 
graphs, as she points out the different children 
you naturally ask which were her favorites. 
Doris hesitates, turns to this one and then to that, 
then to a group or to a row of little beds, and 
says, "Well, there's Victoire, I was very fond 
of her, but I don't know as I loved her better 
than I did Charlotte or Andrea; and then, too, 
there was Mathilde, who learned to say in Eng- 
lish, 'I love you, God bless you'; and I know I 
loved Jean and Robert, oh, yes, and Louis, and 
Henri — oh, dear me, I can't discriminate! We 
just loved every one! Though perhaps I be- 
came best acquainted with Therese the time she 
had chicken pox and we were shut in together for 
three weeks." 

Of course the children had all sorts of dis- 
eases, from chicken pox and measles to diph- 
theria and pneumonia. Most of them recov- 
ered, although occasionally there was a sad little 
funeral, when a child had become so diseased 
from lack of food and care as to be unable to re- 
sist the attacks of bronchitis or dysentery or the 
dreaded tuberculosis. 

Suppose you had been wandering around 
homeless, with father no one knew where — 



3o8 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

whether in the trench or in prison, wounded or 
dead, — mother killed when the town — that nice 
pretty town where your home used to be — ^was 
shelled, or dead from want and exposure and 
worry and fright; suppose you were eleven years 
old, and your father had been killed in war, your 
mother had become crazy from grief and hard- 
ship, and you had been separated from your little 
brother and didn't know what had become of 
him; or suppose you were a girl of ten with a 
sister of seven years, and you had been moved 
about from one place to another, always hand- 
in-hand, neither of you well — wouldn't you both 
be glad to be ''mothered" by a sweet-faced, 
strong-armed, sunny young woman in a clean 
white uniform — a young woman sweet enough 
to make you want to cry and laugh both at once, 
and yet strong enough to lift you up in her arms 
and pat you and pet you and let you cry on her 
shoulder if you really would feel a little better 
for it? 

However, you wouldn't do much crying in 
those Red Cross hospitals with these cheerful 
Red Cross nurses and the jolly Red Cross am- 
bulance men and the funny, funny Red Cross 
doctors who said things to make you laugh just 
when they were going to hurt you dreadfully! 
Of course, if you were only four years old and 
could not understand why you never saw father 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 309 

or mother nowadays, nor why you had been 
bundled about from place to place, and your only 
comfort was your brother and now he had been 
taken by some one and sent somewhere and didn't 
come to this big strange place with you — why, 
then, it would not be strange if you could not eat 
your supper and cried yourself to sleep wish- 
ing for "brother." And you really could never 
have gone to sleep, you are sure, you'd have been 
so frightened, if that dear nurse had not sat 
beside the bed and sung to you just as "mamma" 
used to sing, only such strange words! 

Or if you were a twelve-year-old girl ill here 
in the hospital and word came that your father 
had just been killed — and your dear mother al- 
ready taken from you — why, then, perhaps you 
would creep quietly down into the hospital 
chapel and offer a little prayer and shed a few 
bitter tears. Or if you were a fourteen-year-old 
boy and your mother had been killed and your 
father was a prisoner, and all you had to hope 
for was to reach your soldier brother, somehow, 
somewhere, and in reply to the letter the Red 
Cross had addressed to him the word came that 
he had died in battle, why, then, no matter how 
brave a boy you were, no one could blame you 
for burying your face in your pillow and wish- 
ing to be left alone. You would not be left 
alone long, however, in the chapel or in your 



3IO GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

pillows, for some one in white with a red cross 
on cap or sleeve would find you and soon have 
you busy with something to occupy your mind. 
For the Red Cross nurse not only knows how 
to bathe dirty boys and girls, how to teach them 
ways of cleanliness and healthfulness, how to 
give them medicine, how to do all the thousand 
and one things any one's mother would do for 
a child, but she also plays games with them and 
teaches them many new games of which they 
never have heard before. Boys and girls in 
cities and towns of the United States know all 
about playgrounds and playground games. 
The Red Cross workers include playground 
teachers to help the war-orphans grow 
healthy and happy at the same time, and 
on the hospital playgrounds could be seen 
swings, games of marbles, and boys playing 
baseball and football in regular American style. 
In the winter there was great excitement. Some 
Red Cross men built double-runners and tobog- 
gans, and went coasting with the children. The 
French and Belgian children had never before 
known the fun of coasting! Think of it! But 
they screamed and shouted as they sped down 
the steep hill just as American girls and boys do, 
and puffed and panted up the hill with cheeks 
growing rosy and eyes growing bright and hearts 
forgetting trouble and sadness for one merry 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 311 

hour at least. Some children who are not really 
ill when they arrive are simply ''all of a 
tremble." Boys of this sort are taught carpen- 
try and other useful kinds of work, which they 
love as dearly as their play, and which equips 
them for earning a living in the future. 

Those children who were not strong enough 
or well enough to go sliding down hill, watched 
from the windows and clapped their hands in 
glee or danced up and down excitedly. Unless, 
indeed, they were among those who never again 
could clap their hands or dance up and down. 
The Red Cross nurses have few sadder tales to 
relate than those of children permanently crip- 
pled by German brutality. Among their pa- 
tients was a girl of twelve who had been made 
blind in one eye, had lost three fingers of her 
right hand, and received serious injuries in her 
right side, from the explosion of a loaded pencil 
given her by a German soldier. Another of 
these loaded pencils had been given to a boy 
who lost his left eye and part of his left hand 
when the pencil exploded. Felix, a lad of sev- 
enteen, was walking with his mother down the 
street of their home town just after the Ger- 
mans had taken possession; neither the boy nor 
his mother understood a word of the enemy's 
language; as they passed a group of German 
soldiers, one of them shouted a short, sharp 



312 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

word; Felix and his mother walked straight on, 
not knowing the soldier had commanded them to 
"halt." The soldier fired ; the mother fell dead ; 
Felix was shot in the ankle and crippled for 
life. 

Jules could not watch the coasters from the 
window, because his eyes were so sore he could 
not bear the light. Nearly all the rapatrie chil- 
dren had sore eyes and ears and some sort of 
skin infection. They surely needed a "mother's 
care." Little Marie could not look out of the 
window either, for her eyes were almost closed 
with sores ; and she could not hear the boys and 
girls shouting as they coasted, for her ears were 
also closed with sores. 

This is not pleasant reading, but it is the sort 
of thing the Red Cross went to remedy. The 
Red Cross mothered the sick children and made 
most of them well ; it mothered the sad children 
and made them all more contented and as happy 
as children could be under such abnormal con- 
ditions. There was Philippe, for instance, who 
arrived at the hospital with sore eyes and sore 
ears, and then had the chicken pox, and then the 
measles! But in spite of it all, he was such a 
fine, jolly little chap and gave such promise of 
developing into a boy to be proud of, that the 
mayor of the city said he would adopt Philippe 
as soon as he was entirely well. 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 313 

Other children were adopted temporarily by 
companies of American soldiers who agreed to 
pay a certain sum of money during the year to 
the Children's Bureau of the American Red 
Cross for the support of one or more orphans 
who would then become the son or daughter 
of that company. In the "Welcome Home" 
parade held in the American cities after the 
soldiers returned, marched several orphan boys 
who had been adopted by individual soldiers or 
by companies of men. 

Another way in which the Red Cross helped 
both mothers and babies, was by arranging a 
sort of "day-nursery" near factories and munition 
plants, where women who had to work every 
day — because the men were all away fighting or 
doing some sort of government work — might 
leave their babies and very young children to be 
taken care of by Red Cross workers. Sometimes 
there were several hundreds of women employed 
in one factory, many of them with tiny babies. 
Canteens, hospitals, and dispensaries were also 
conducted for such women workers, in which the 
Red Cross cooperated with the government and 
the Y. W. C. A. There was team work here as 
elsewhere. The American and French Red 
Cross, and in many places the British Red Cross, 
worked together or alongside happily and effi- 
ciently, each trying to regard the varying 



314 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

methods and appliances of the others, all work- 
ing for, the one great end. 

The Red Cross tried to mother the mothers, 
you see, as well as their men and children. On 
the mothers, those brave mothers of Belgium and 
France, rested heavy burdens, heavier still be- 
cause humble though necessary, generally of un- 
perceived and unheroic character. There were 
women who hid away from the German taubes 
by day, and worked by night in the fields, wear- 
ing masks sometimes for protection from deadly 
gases still hanging over the country. Weren't 
the Red Cross workers glad to care for the chil- 
dren of such brave, patient mothers? Then 
there were mothers who had nothing in the 
world left but a little son or daugliter who had to 
be sent away for safety. If such a mother was 
near enough to reach the place where her child 
was being sheltered, she would hardly be refused 
permission to visit her darling. Sometimes such 
a mother would find the child in bed with a con- 
tagious disease; oh, dear, she didn't know when- 
ever she could come again; and the tears would 
begin to roll down her cheeks. The Red Cross 
nurse never hesitates. Action — speedy action — 
is her characteristic. Away she speeds from the 
weeping woman; holds a hurried consultation 
with the Red Cross doctor, who beams through 
his glasses, shakes his head dubiously for an in- 



''THE GREATEST MOTHER" 315 

stant, and then nods assent; off rushes the nurse, 
reappearing with sterilized garments such as the 
doctors and nurses wear in the contagious wards ; 
in the wink of an eye the astonished mother is 
robed in the white garments and conducted to 
her darling's bedside! 

A FAITHFUL FRIEND 

Of course, dogs can't be dressed in sterilized 
garments and admitted to the bedroom of a 
patient ill with a contagious disease! That is, 
the dog might be dressed up in Red Cross ap- 
parel all right, but he would be sure, if let into 
the room of some one he loved, to jump straight 
onto the bed and lick the patient's face. A 
pathetic story is told of a faithful little four- 
footed friend in this connection. "Our hospital 
has one small black-and-white dog living there. 
It belongs to a very sick little lad up in the scarlet 
fever ward, and all day long that little dog sits 
on the steps watching the door. Many children 
are carried in and he shows little interest, but let 
a child come out and every hair quivers." ^ 

CARE OF RAPATRIES 

Later in the war there came back through the 
railroad stations other forlorn wayfarers, the 
rapatries. Social service of the American Red 

1 Lucas, June R. 



3i6 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Cross in France included work among people of 
three classes: first, the refugees, those who had 
fled from their homes at the approach of an in- 
vading army; second, the evacues, those who 
were allowed to leave their home towns or their 
home land after the enemy had taken posses- 
sion; third, the rapatries, those who after having 
been taken prisoners or driven away from their 
homes were sent back because they could be of 
no use, and the enemy could not afiford to feed 
those who could in no way repay — a boy of four- 
teen, for instance, who, after being obliged to dig 
trenches for the Germans for several months 
developed tuberculosis and when he became too 
weak to dig any more was ^'repatriated." 

A social worker of the Red Cross might re- 
ceive notice at any time that hundreds of per- 
sons were about to arrive, that temporary 
quarters must be provided and food ready for 
immediate serving. That homes must be found, 
medical care given, and work found for as many 
as could be employed. Unforeseen situations 
were always arising. Soon after the armistice 
was decreed, Germany sent rapatries in steadily 
increasing numbers, and so many hundreds 
would arrive each day that it soon became im- 
possible to provide enough beds for the people 
to sleep on. In spite of all sorts of clever 
schemes, thousands of refugees were obliged to 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 317 

sleep on hard floors. So the Red Cross was 
forced to go into the bed-making business on a 
large scale. In cities situated in the timber 
regions, which are railroad centers for large 
areas in which thousands of refugees are living, 
arrangements were made to manufacture at once 
a special Red Cross bed which is strong, practi- 
cal, good-looking and, including the springs, 
costs only five dollars. 

The rapatries were mostly old men and women 
and little children. Sometimes the children 
were in care of women, oftentimes they were 
alone, just like a herd of frightened little cattle. 
More often than not their fathers were at war, 
their mothers had been killed; or the children 
had been separated from their mother or grand- 
mother or aunt and never had been able to find 
her. When a train arrived it was met by the 
social worker of the Red Cross, nurses, ambu- 
lance men, and perhaps other volunteer workers. 
The ambulance men with their cheery ways and 
kindly words and gentle attentions did much to 
encourage the sick and feeble as they helped 
them to the ambulances, trundling some in 
wheeled chairs, carrying others on stretchers. 
Smiles and tears met on the faces of the older 
people; it was good to be coming home, but at 
the same time it was so sad a home coming. 
While the older ones were being settled in the 



3i8 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

ambulances, the children were stowed in a big 
bus, and as the vehicles drove away the rest of 
the arrivals followed afoot. 

All were taken to the Casino, a big, bright, 
roomy, two-storied building where they were fed 
and entertained. The children — and about one- 
half of each trainload were children — were 
taken upstairs into the balcony. Then the Red 
Cross workers began to investigate and to "sort 
out," as it were, the various families or groups 
or solitary individuals. Many were put in touch 
by telegram or letter with relatives or friends. 
The sick were sent to hospitals. Arrangements 
of one kind or another were made for all. The 
Children's Bureau looked after the boys and 
girls, many of whom were too young to know 
their names or to give any kind of information 
about themselves. Nearly every one was suffer- 
ing from having been neglected as to food and 
care for three years or more; thin, pale, dirty, 
with skin diseased from lack of bathing and from 
vermin. The records of one hospital tell the 
story of one family of eleven children, all in ex- 
treme filth and resultant disease. "May such a 
fate never overtake our dear American chil- 
dren," sighs the Red Cross nurse, "and may their 
young hearts be moved to do all they can for the 
relief of these poor French and Belgian girls 
and boys." ^ 

1 As a matter of fact, "the first American rapatrie" was an 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 319 

"For, my dear," says Doris, who was stationed 
at one of these clearing centers for a while, "in 
case of war it might happen to you ! Don't think 
for a minute that I didn't see girls just as lovely 
as you, Janet, whose hair had to be cut ofif be- 
cause of the frightful condition of the head; and 
they felt just as bad about it as you would, and 
cried just as hard when their curls fell away from 
those cruel Red Cross shears. 

"Then there was a girl whose father lived for 
a while in lodgings in the village, while the little 
daughter was receiving treatment at our hos- 
pital," continues Doris. "The father was a most 
distinguished-looking elderly gentleman — I am 
sure he used to be a professor or a clergyman 
before the war — and he came almost every day 
to see his child. She was all that was left to 
him, except a great beautiful dog who always 
accompanied his master. 

"I recall one family of five children, between 
the ages of four and sixteen. They had not seen 
their father for two years, since he had left home 

American boy, who with his mother was visiting in France when 
the war broke out. When his mother returned, the boy was not 
very well, and remained for a longer visit in his aunt's home. 
He was taken by the Germans and held by them for nearly three 
years. Finally, he was sent back to France in company with 
thousands of French and Belgian rapatries. The Red Cross repre- 
sentatives, through the Washington Headquarters, at once got into 
communication with the boy's parents. Until his safe return could 
be arranged, the lad served as chasseur at Red Cross Headquarters 
in Paris, — one of a corps of uniformed messengers running neces- 
sary errands between the Red Cross offices and warehouses. 



320 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

to go to the trenches, and they had heard that 
their eldest brother was a prisoner of war. 
Their mother had been killed while the town 
in which they lived was being shelled. The 
children had lived in cellars for safety, and had 
been rescued by the Red Cross and sent to my 
hospital. They were the sweetest, best-man- 
nered children, and always doing what they 
thought their mother and father would wish 
them to do. The oldest sister could always bring 
little brother to terms by saying, 'Do you think 
it would please dear mamma to do thus and so?' 
They showed by their comments and questions 
that they had been accustomed to a good home 
and to the things enjoyed by people of means 
and refinement, and their voices were soft and 
gentle and unlike the loud, harsh voices of the 
peasants. The oldest boy, too, was in high 
school when war began and was expecting to go 
through; this in itself was an indication, as only 
boys of prosperous families attend high school 
or go to any school after they are fourteen or 
fifteen, as they must then go to work. When 
I came away from the hospital the father had 
not yet come to claim his patient, faithful little 
family. I only hope he did sometime. 

*We did occasionally witness and participate 
in happy reunions," said Doris. "I remember 
one nine-year-old girl in the hospital whose 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 321 

mother had been lost in the flight from their 
home town, and whose father had been in the 
war from its beginning. One day, without a 
word of warning, in walked the girl's father. 
Such joy! Then, after a while the soldier began 
to make inquiries about other children in the 
hospital ; and because his heart had ached so bit- 
terly for his own little daughter, he knew just 
how other hearts had ached for these other chil- 
dren, and he interpreted the sad, yearning look 
in the eyes of the girls and boys who gazed so 
wistfully at the fortunate child in her father's 
arms; and the man walked around through the 
hospital 'fathering' those little waifs, saying 
sweet bits of comfort to the girls and talking real 
soldier talk to the boys. 

"When Rene's father came to claim him, their 
meeting was a strange one, for neither recog- 
nized the other. Rene was only a toddler when 
his father had gone away three years before, and 
three years was altogether out of the question for 
such a toddler's memory. He was not a toddler 
now, but 'a big boy' (take his word for it!) and 
had grown entirely beyond recognition. How- 
ever, soon his devoted father began to recall the 
starry eyes, the determined chin, 'his mother's 
mouth,' and he held him tight to his heart at the 
word 'mother,' for they would never see her in 
this world again. 



322 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

"A joyous occasion was that on which the 
X-ray man in our hospital discovered in a group 
of rapatries his own family, of whose where- 
abouts he had not been able to learn. Driven 
from their own home, taken he knew not where, 
living he knew not how — or indeed whether liv- 
ing at all — and now brought by the Red Cross 
straight to his very arms! Such excitement! It 
did not require any X-ray to convince onlookers 
that the happy man's heart was beating hard and 
fast" 

Then there was the wonderful day that came 
so unexpectedly to that Belgian soldier who was 
lying wounded in a French hospital and wearing 
his heart out for his wife and four children 
wandering he knew not where. Two things 
troubled his nurses: he would not smile and he 
did not seem to care about getting well. He 
just worried and worried and worried 1 So of 
course he could not get well! 

The nurses discovered that the soldier would 
almost smile when he looked out of the window 
and saw children playing in a neighboring yard. 
One day he waved his hand to a little girl. The 
next day the little girl brought a bunch of wild 
flowers and tossed them in the window to him. 
Then he really did smile. The next day the 
little girl came again with more flowers and with 
her came another girl. The soldier smiled and 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 323 

waved his hand, and then uttered such a scream 
as to bring the nurse running to the bedside in 
alarm. The man pointed to the smaller child, 
and sobbed and tried to climb out of bed. Oh, 
the nurse must hurry before the children got too 
far away! For it was his little girl out there! 
And so indeed it was. And within an hour the 
amazed soldier folded his dear wife and four 
little ones all to his heart. Do you need to be 
told that he recovered rapidly thereafter? 

FESTIVAL OCCASIONS 

Festival days were the greatest kinds of days 
in the Red Cross hospitals, and Christmas natur- 
ally was the very greatest festival of all. A 
service of worship was quite generally observed 
on Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning, 
when a priest from a near-by church would come 
in and conduct the service, and frequently the 
patients would form some sort of choir. In the 
Children's Hospital where Doris was at Christ- 
mas, there were a few boys who had been altar 
boys in the good old days at home, and they 
gladly assisted the priest in his duties. After 
breakfast on Christmas morning the children 
were assembled to view the Christmas tree, beau- 
tifully lighted with candles and laden with 
simple gifts. While the girls and boys were still 
uttering a chorus of oh's and ah's, a great racket 



324 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

was heard and in rushed Santa Claus! A regu- 
lar American Santa Claus, jolly, and joking, and 
shaking with laughter and fun. The children 
greeted him with several Christmas songs, then 
they lined up in procession and marched past in 
regular military style, each saluting Santa Claus 
with a regulation military salute. After which 
the ambulance boys who had been guarding the 
tree so that it should by no chance get afire, 
helped Santa Claus (who looked suspiciously 
like a certain big-hearted Red Cross doctor) to 
distribute the gifts. 

Are you wondering how it was that patients 
in a hospital were well enough to attend the 
celebration? Well, you see, boys and girls with 
sore ears or sore eyes or swollen glands, or with 
crippled hands or feet, and those who were 
simply suffering from lack of food and care, 
and those who were convalescing from disease 
and beyond the stage where they had to be 
separated from the others — these made up quite 
a party. And do you suppose for one moment 
that any Santa Claus — and especially a Red 
Cross Santa Claus — would forget the children 
who could not come to the tree exercises? Of 
course you know better! And you know, with- 
out being told, how Dr. Santa Claus bounded 
upstairs with a pack full of toys for the bed- 
ridden patients. Some of these patients were 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 325 

too sick to smile as a dolly or other toy was 
slipped into their arms; some were too weak to 
lift the toy; and some, alas, would never be able 
to move a hand to lift anything again. 

The girls and boys who were able to be about 
downstairs spent a merry day, with songs and 
games and a specially good dinner with wonder- 
ful cakes and "sweeties." When all the children 
were tucked in bed for the night, a Christmas 
hug and kiss were given each of these forlorn bits 
of humanity; and the Christmas greetings were 
even more comforting to the givers than to the 
recipients. If you have ever been away from 
home over Christmas, you remember what a 
dreadfully "homesick-y" day it was! Our Red 
Cross workers across the seas realized how many 
miles they were from home at that precious sea- 
son of the year, and also how many chances there 
were that they might never see home again. 

A particularly sweet thing happened at Doris's 
hospital the afternoon before Christmas, when 
a company of French children from the little 
town near by came with the teacher of the village 
school to bring to the patients a basket of gifts. 
The nurses did not think it would be wise for the 
well children to come in contact with the dis- 
eased boys and girls, but they showed the little 
visitors the tree and lighted it all up for them, 
and then they treated the guests to cookies and 



326 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

hot chocolate. As the visitors went away, they 
stopped beneath the windows and serenaded the 
hospital children. 

In the soldiers' hospitals, too, there was high 
carnival at Christmas. One of the devoted Red 
Cross nurses who was offered six days' leave of 
absence over the holidays, replied, "Mothers who 
love their children don't go off and leave them 
with empty stockings then." So she remained 
on duty and got up a Christmas entertainment. 
The windows of the ward were garlanded with 
ivy gathered by an orderly. A tree was set up 
and on Christmas morning glittered with candles 
and ornaments, while from its branches hung tiny 
gifts — bonbons, crackers, cakes, pipes; at the 
very top of the tree shone a tinsel star and with it 
the tricolor, little silk flags of the Allies and the 
Stars and Stripes. Here it was not a doctor 
but an aged orderly who personified "Pere 
Noel," as the French call the patron saint of 
Christmas Day. He was dressed in a blue-gray 
cape which covered him from top to toe, he 
wore a high peaked hood and a long white beard, 
and carried in his hand a cane and a lantern; 
his feet were tucked into deep turned-up wooden 
shoes, and on his back he carried a basket of 
oranges and cakes, enough for the whole hospi- 
tal. 

Each patient under this Santa Claus's care re- 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 327 

ceived a "Victory .Packet" — four sheets of writ- 
ing paper, four envelopes, and an ink pencil, 
a tiny mirror, a small comb in a case, a bright 
' package of bonbons, and a package of cigarettes. 

One poor chap had a glimpse of Pere Noel 
just as he was dropping into his last sleep. He 
looked puzzled, then pleased, stretched out his 
arms and smiled a marvelous smile; then the 
nurse bent low and whispered a Christmas mes- 
sage, the last words the dying soldier ever heard.^ 

Decorations and entertainment depended 
somewhat on the nationality of the soldiers. An 
American nurse on service in a war hospital in 
Italy sent home an account of the way the Red 
Cross did things in that country. Her Christmas 
tree was trimmed with yards of tinsel, gaily 
colored balls, paper chains of the national colors 
and Italian flags, small flags of all the allied 
and neutral nations, and Christmas angels shin- 
ing from shimmering silver discs. 

"In the center, low down, so that every one 
could see it, was the Persepio — the charming 
little colored panorama of the Birth of Christ. 
Over this I hung gold and silver stars, and a very 
special Star just above the dear Christ-Child, 
while a red light, very near, shed a soft radiance. 
When the one hundred and fifty candles were 
lit, it was a glorious sight! But the light from 

1 "Mademoiselle Miss." 



328 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the tree was nothing compared with the radiance 
of the faces of our dear soldiers! Those who 
could walk or limp came on crutches or canes, 
others were carried on the backs of our Red 
Cross Orderlies, and several were brought in on 
wheeled stretchers. From the top of a huge jar 
that held the tree, down to the floor and out in a 
sort of fan-shaped circle, we put crepe paper 
of the tricolor, and on this the candy bags of tri- 
color muslin tied with red, white, and green 
ribbon. Then, one of our boys who is of an 
artistic turn of mind, printed (in orange) the 
word Auguri (Wishes) . Circling everything 
were rows and rows of golden mandarins and 
oranges!" 

For the few soldiers who were unable to be 
present at the "Festa," the nurse made "wee in- 
dividual trees out of huge pine cones used for 
kindling." Each large outspread petal held a 
tiny colored candle. "Each miniature tree was 
placed in a plate of sand and I wish you might 
have seen the fairy blaze of the gay little tapers, 
and the happy light in some weary eyes." 

After the distribution of gifts there was a 
program of music, singing, and speech making, 
concluding with hearty cheers for the nurses and 
a "Vivi I'America!" Then the boys, knowing 
the "Festa" had been for them and desiring to 
see the thing through to the finish, before any 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 329 

one realized what was happening began to strip 
the tree of its gay trimmings and to appropriate 
the decorations. "They scrambled and reached 
and stretched; stood on chairs; pulled the tinsel; 
carried away stars, bells, flags, angels, gay little 
toys — all, all! In their excitement, however, 
they showed the Italian characteristic of 
thoughtfulness for others, and the soldiers who 
were on stretchers, or in any way incapacitated 
from joining in the merry pillage, were each and 
all given their share!" ^ 

In a French field hospital in Flanders, instead 
of one large Christmas tree, "eight sturdy baby 
fir trees were firmly planted one in each of eight 
chubby white wooden boxes," the boxes camou- 
flaged with paint to resemble the green slopes 
whereon the fir trees had grown. The nurses 
set to work unpacking "case after case and bale 
after bale of gifts from friends in England and 
America." The patients learned what was go- 
ing on and one after another would try to get 
a peep at the preparations. 

"Every now and then a convalescent Arab in 
one of the blue and red hospital dressing gowns, 
a little round cap on his head, would flatten 
his nose even more than its wont against one of 
the window panes; or one of the blesses on 
crutches, out for his morning airing, would 

1 Porter, G. C, in Red Cross Magazine. 



330 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

stump cautiously up our boardwalk to peep in 
through a crack in the door. I think it was the 
eager look on these faces, so recently haggard 
and drawn with suffering, that first made me 
realize that this was to be no ordinary festival. 
After the unpacking, we had to take the nurses 
aside and get from each a list of her charges with, 
however slight, an indication of each man's 
tastes. There were about no patients here at 
the time, about 90 orderlies and a long list of 
doctors, nurses, chauffeurs, etc. Each was to be 
personally remembered and his fragment of 
Christmas wrapped in paper and tied with 
colored ribbon. 

"In every spare moment of their days down 
would come the two youngest nurses to help to 
sew tarletan bags in bright colors, and cut, ac- 
cording to their fancy, to caricature the legs of 
friend or enemy. These bags were to be the 
'stockings' and had to be filled. Walnuts, fil- 
berts and almonds stuffed out the foot nicely. 
Then, in graded sizes, tangerine oranges, and 
apples and, finally, as we got up to the calf, a 
nice big orange with a packet of tobacco and a 
pipe, or a cigarette holder with a packet of ciga- 
rettes, a miniature packet of playing cards, 
dominoes or any other foolish little game or 
puzzle, a brilliant painted or stamped handker- 
chief ; and for the most patient or in some other 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 331 

way the most deserving of our large family, the 
prime favorites of all gifts, a small looking glass 
or a tiny comb in a leather case." 

The day before Christmas a tree w^as taken 
to each ward and trimmed in the presence of the 
patients, who made laughing suggestions and 
criticisms. Every now and then a patient who 
was able to walk about, would go from one ward 
to another "taking a look around" and report 
on the comparative progress of the trees. Then 
each nurse strove all the harder to make her 
tree the very most beautiful. The wards were 
trimmed with colored lanterns, flags, and red 
paper roses 'Vhich the men had been happy as 
schoolboys making for ten days at least." At 
dusk on Christmas Eve the lanterns and trees 
were lighted, and baskets of presents were sent 
to each ward. "By 7 o'clock the whole cere- 
mony had to be over, as our big sick children 
had had a long day and were to be put to bed 
before they were too tired to sleep. 

"No sooner were they safely and soundly 
asleep than the night nurses — this week the two 
girls who had helped to make the tarletan stock- 
ings — stole round and hung one of them at the 
head of each bed, and it was they who had all 
the fun of the Christmas morning awakening, 
for by the time the rest of us and the sun were 
well up, the stockings had all been emptied, their 



332 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

precious contents carefully sorted and stacked on 
the shelves behind each bed and the wards 
cleaned up and ready for the doctor's morning 
rounds." 

The invalids had an extra good dinner, ham 
and stewed rabbit, peas, plum pudding, cheese, 
fruit, nuts, raisins, figs, dates and sweets, with 
coffee and wine. In the evening there was a 
dinner party for the doctors and nurses and the 
ambulance men. The orderlies had a tree all 
their own and a good dinner. 

This was Christmas in a field hospital. But 
the Christmas celebration did not end there. On 
the following Sunday the Red Cross had a big 
tree in the village for refugee children. "The 
Mayor lent us a large room in his house. We 
dressed one of our men up as Santa Claus in a 
dressing gown turned red side out and trimmed 
with swan's down off an old neglige of the Di- 
rectress. His cap was of red turkey cotton, also 
trimmed with swan's down, and a nurse made 
him a lovely wig and beard out of flax and then 
powdered it. He was quite a work of art. We 
had invited 125 children, but 331 turned up! 
Happily there were small things enough on the 
tree to go round." ^ 

The United States Government planned that 
every soldier and sailor in its service should re- 

1 Mortimer, Maud, in Red Cross Magazine. 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 333 

ceive a Christmas remembrance, and the Red 
Cross did all in its power to make the holiday 
a memorable occasion for every man. A Red 
Cross Christmas packet, containing a few useful 
gifts and, more especially, holiday treats, was sent 
to each man. These packages, which carried as 
much of Christmas flavor as possible, were made 
by the women and children of the chapters, in- 
cluding the members of the Junior Red Cross. 
The Naval Auxiliaries of the Red Cross per- 
formed a like service for men in the Navy. 

To one young fellow very near the end of life 
on the Christmas following the armistice, the 
nurses could bring no pleasure or cheer. The 
lad could see nothing but disappointment in his 
fate. He was the kind of boy who had cherished 
visions. He had hoped to be a man who did 
things. And here he was going to die before 
he had even begun to do things. The disheart- 
ened nurses reported the dying soldier's sad 
mental condition to the chaplain, who went at 
once to the boy's bedside. 

"Good morning," said the chaplain, cheerily; 
"I suppose I can't really wish you a merry 
Christmas, but I know this must be the very 
best Christmas you ever had." 

The boy looked perplexed, scornful, defiant, 
and refused to answer a word. 

"You know," continued the chaplain, "you are 



334 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

the means of bringing to the world the happiest 
Christmas it has had for a long time — since the 
very first one, perhaps." 

The boy began to look interested. ''For you 
— and the other fellows like you — have really 
brought peace to earth. The Christmas bells 
will ring more sweetly, the Christmas trees will 
gleam more brightly, and troubled hearts will 
beat more serenely if not joyfully, than for sev- 
eral years. Why? Because you have helped to 
bring peace. My, but you must be a proud fel- 
low to-day! What a wonderful Christmas pres- 
ent you have made the world! Many a man 
will live seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred 
years perhaps, and never have a chance to do the 
big, heroic, beautiful thing you have done. 
And so I have come to you as a sort of Christmas 
messenger from all the people who are happy 
to-day, to say Thank You. Greater things can 
no man do than to lay down his life for others. 
That's the real genuine Christmas spirit." 

The lad reached out feebly and grasped the 
chaplain's hand. Tears were running down his 
face. "Oh, sir, I thank you so much! 'Twas a 
heavy heart I had before you came. But you 
have made everything look different. I hope 
what you say is true. Yes, I know it is. So 
Merry Christmas it is, chaplain. Won't you 
pray for me?" 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 335 

Again, at Easter, were exercises of religious 
nature followed by scenes of gaiety. Good Fri- 
day was observed with intensified solemnity. 
Holy days seem to have acquired new signifi- 
cance for those who have been so near death. 
In addition to flowers and candies and messages 
for the morn of Easter Day, in some hospitals 
nests were made by the nurses, 'Voven out of 
excelsior and lined with cotton and arbor-vitae" ; 
in each nest were placed several chocolate candy 
eggs, on top of which was perched "a white 
sugar hen with a pink comb and pompous tail, 
and a favor of the Allies round her neck." 
When the soldiers saw the Easter nests, they 
shouted their applause, and held out their hands 
— trembling, weal^, many of them bandaged — 
for the precious souvenirs. *'One poor little fel- 
low smiled for the first time since he had reached 
the hospital six weeks before." ^ 

"Fourth-of-July" has no special significance 
for Europeans. That is, it had no special signifi- 
cance previous to July 4, 19 17, when the Ameri- 
can troops marched through the streets of Paris 
led by General Pershing, to the shouts of wel- 
come from the Allies. The hearts of all patri- 
o^tic Americans beat high on that anniversary, 
and never did any representatives of the United 
States feel more like "celebrating the Fourth" 

1 "Mademoiselle Miss." 



336 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

than did the members of the American Red 
Cross abroad. In Doris's hospital a feast was 
served, with fifty French officials as guests, in- 
cluding doctors, priests, heads of the army in 
town, and heads of hospitals. The piece de re- 
sistance was a huge ham baked as we cook it in 
America with sugar sprinkled liberally over it 
and cloves pressed into the fatty part, and then 
baked brown! Doesn't it make your mouth 
water? It certainly did have that effect on the 
French officials, who never before had tasted 
ham cooked in that way. And later in the feast 
came another surprise, a strawberry shortcake 
American style, made of the most delicious sweet 
wild strawberries picked in the fields round 
about. Red Cross posters adorned the walls of 
the dining room, and the tables were decorated 
with jars of red poppies, white daisies, and blue 
bachelor buttons. No, not ]ars! The bouquet 
holders for that occasion were empty shell cas- 
ings, long hollow brass tubes. Probably you 
have seen some of the many which have been 
brought home as war relics. 

A TRIBUTE TO WOMEN 

On a New Year's Eve, when a number of 
nurses and doctors gathered to greet the incom- 
ing year, after the first ''toast" drunk to "Vic- 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 337 

tory," a young lieutenant propased the follow- 
ing: 

"To our Women, who sent us forth with 
courage in their hearts and tears in their eyes! 

"To our Women at home who are sacrificing 
their all that we may win! 

"To our Women over here who give their own 
lives that we may live !" 

A Red Cross man has proposed the follow- 
ing: 

"Here's to our women. All over France you 
will find them. Mere slips of girls, barely out 
of their teens, driving great camions; middle- 
aged ladies, accustomed all their lives to luxuries, 
spending ten hours a day in canteen kitchens, sup- 
plying troops with hot dishes ; and in the cities 
gray-haired women working hour after hour 
rolling bandages or knitting sweaters, so that our 
boys may lack for nothing." 

MISS boardman's forecast 

At the beginning of the European War, when 
it became evident that the American Red Cross 
would be called on for service, Miss Mabel 
Boardman in a look-ahead, foreseeing the many 
lines of work opening for women, said : "Along 
the lines of the evacuation of the wounded rest 
stations must be established, where hot soup, 
coffee, and other suitable refreshments for the 
soldiers must be ready for every train. These 



338 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

should be installed and operated by lay women, 
under the supervision of a Red Cross nurse. 
There will be men temporarily crippled, who 
will need the aid of the lay woman. Many 
must be taught how again to earn their liveli- 
hood by some method suitable to the loss of eye- 
sight, or of a leg, or an arm. There will be 
wives and children of the soldiers at the front 
who will need her assistance, and to her tender 
sympathy and care must be confided the widows 
and orphans. The woman, be she lay woman 
or trained nurse, who is willing to do what she 
is best fitted to do will find no limit to the field 
of her usefulness in the misfortune of war." 

Her prophecy was more than fulfilled. "For 
the first time in history a nation's first levies 
were made up largely of women." *'The 
women of the United States deserve a large 
share of the credit for the successes of the 
American forces," said General Pershing. 

"Many a time I have seen our men being fed 
on the often slow and tedious journeys in 
France ; seen those who were taken sick en route 
being cared for; seen them being amused by 
movies, lectures, libraries at rest canteens; seen 
letters being written by Red Cross 'searchers' 
for those who were too sick to write themselves, 
or witnessed the motherly oversight given the 
young women nurses when they came to the 



"THE GREATEST MOTHER" 339 

cities on their brief vacations," says Major-Gen- 
eral Ireland, Surgeon General, U. S. A. "Do 
you know what an army medical officer thinks 
when he sees things like these? Just this: 
Such comforts bring the home influence to the 
battlefield; the home influence means morale, 
and morale means — victory!" 



CHAPTER VII 

The Future of the Red Cross 

What is the future of the Red Cross? This 
became one of the "burning questions" of the 
months following the close of the European 
War. Having been granted wider vision and 
almost limitless opportunity, was the organiza- 
tion to sit back and fold its official hands until 
another startling disaster occurred? Or were 
the members to say, "We have misery enough at 
home, we cannot be expected to send further 
help abroad?" Was the marvelous spirit of 
unity for one common purpose, which was re- 
acting in a wonderful development of the 
American spirit, to end for the time being, with 
all the busy units resolved into indifferent and 
self-centered individuals? 

All over the land a mighty chorus of "No's" 
was heard in almost unanimous protest. Chap- 
ters and branches demanded that they be con- 
tinued and kept ready for immediate response to 
any call for need or relief, and be allowed to 
work along the many lines of cooperation which 
had developed. Through the closer association 

340 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 341 

and mutual interchange of knowledge and ambi- 
tions and aspirations endless avenues of service 
heretofore unrealized or unconsidered have pre- 
sented themselves. 

It is always easier to keep on going when one 
is well started than it is to stop and start all 
over again. So the Red Cross said, ''Don't let's 
stop! Let's keep going!" If the whole organi- 
zation were always ready for any emergency, 
what a wonderful force would be at the com- 
mand of the directors and of the government at a 
moment's notice! 

One slogan of the present day is ''Service," 
another is "Community Service," and a third, 
now becoming universal, is "Coordination." 
The Red Cross, because of its remarkable flex- 
ibility and adaptability which render it so 
capable of cooperation — and so capable in co- 
operation — seems to fly the one flag around 
which all peoples, races, and sects may rally 
and under which all may march, leading on to 
intelligent, practical, efficient service. The 
American Red Cross with its new wide outlook 
is able to help us as individuals, by carrying out 
comprehensive programs for better health, better 
living, better education. It is able to lead us 
into wider fields of community service, consid- 
ering "community health and sanitation needs, 
recreation needs, special problems of immigrant 



342 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

groups, or the more effective local use of state 
and federal resources for the protection of 
health, the care of the sick, the defective, de- 
pendent and delinquent." And it reveals to us 
obligations of world-wide service to the needy, 
the ignorant, the oppressed, and the suffering. 

A new spirit of service has been aroused by 
the war. A new realization of world-wide 
brotherhood has developed. ''There has been 
no single effort of the United States during the 
war that has amazed the people of Europe with 
its comprehensiveness and its spirit of service 
as has the country-wide expression of the Red 
Cross for the suffering people of Europe," says 
Mr. Frederick C. Munroe, General Manager, 
American Red Cross. "A message such as was 
never given the world before," says an army of- 
ficer, "was conveyed by a great people coming as 
a unit to help the suffering; it was the most 
wonderfully marvelous show the world has 
ever seen." "But the voluntary Red Cross fits 
naturally on a voluntary army. One is the free 
expression of a man wishing to serve his country 
in that way; the other is how men and women 
left behind can best express their feelings at his 
going to fight for them." ^ 

President Wilson has said that while the army 
demonstrated force, the Red Cross demonstrated 

1 Barker, Granville. "The Red Cross in France." 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 343 

character. "Not that our men in arms do not 
represent our character, for they do, and it is 
a character which those who see and realize, 
appreciate and admire; but their duty is the 
duty of force. The duty of the Red Cross is 
the duty of mercy and succor and friendship. 
Friendship is the only cement that will ever 
hold the world together. And this intimate 
contact of the Red Cross with the peoples who 
are suffering the terrors and deprivations of this 
war is going to be one of the greatest instrumen- 
talities of friendship that the world ever knew, 
and the center of the heart of it all, if we sus- 
tain it properly, will be this land that we dearly 
love." 

"Never in all history has such an opportunity 
to exert a beneficent influence upon the welfare 
of humanity been presented, and never before 
has there been an organization so ready, so 
equipped, and so willing to embrace the oppor- 
tunity as is the American Red Cross," says Mr. 
Munroe. "Out of the world war with its in- 
credible tale of misery and suffering must come 
an awakened conscience, an aroused sense of 
brotherhood, a new spirit of service which we 
all believe the American Red Cross has already 
done so much to create and foster. We of the 
Red Cross fervently believe that this conscience, 
this new brotherhood, this spirit of service is to 



344 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

prevail, and that the coming generations are to 
rebuild on the foundations of this war a better 
and more durable life, a greater happiness and 
a more secure liberty. What is to be the part 
of the American Red Cross in this rebuilding 
of the world? The Red Cross is face to face 
with the question of its future. In every way 
possible the Red Cross has sought to feel the 
public pulse, to consult the great organized 
agencies already in the field, and the country- 
wide response was so manifest, the demand as a 
whole so keen that the Red Cross should not 
give up but should go on and expand its work, 
that to have refused such a demand would have 
amounted almost to a betrayal of trust." 

But what is the Red Cross going to do? That 
is a question which presents peculiar difficulties. 
The Red Cross is really an emergency organi- 
zation. Originally having for its object the re- 
lief of those suffering from the one great 
calamity, the one great disaster, and later 
amending its constitution so that in times of 
peace it might aid those in emergencies arising 
from other calamities and disasters, just how 
does it fit in when times and conditions are 
normal? 

The Red Cross is very much like an umbrella, 
to be hoisted when needed. Emergencies, like 
showers, are apt to come any day, but no one can 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 345 

prophesy exactly when. The Red Cross can no 
more look ahead and predict the date of the 
next flood or fire or cyclone or earthquake than 
you can tell on which day of next week or next 
month or next year you will need your umbrella. 
Therefore the Red Cross can never say with 
certainty just what it is ''going to do." Thus 
far the Red Cross has always been ready for 
use in stormy weather, standing in the corner, 
as it were, like any respectable family umbrella 
between-times. Now, however, the Red Cross 
has outgrown the standing-in-the-corner period 
of its existence, and proposes to become one of 
the "rain-and-sun" style of umbrellas, useful in 
fair weather as well as in foul. 

The exact nature of the future work of the 
Red Cross will depend on the program of the 
associated governments. "The war program 
will steadily and rapidly merge itself into a 
peace program, and the American Red Cross is 
planning to develop its permanent organization 
in this country upon a scale never before con- 
templated in time of peace. Our abiding pur- 
pose is that the love, the sympathy, and the in- 
telligence of all America shall be rededicated 
to the personal service of mankind." ^ 

As the first duty of the Red Cross is to the 
men of the army and navy, therefore until all 

1 Address by Henry P. Davison. 



346 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

soldiers and sailors should be demobilized the 
Red Cross was bound to stay by them wherever 
they might be; and to leave nothing undone for 
the men in the war zone or in occupied terri- 
tory, for those in camps and hospitals, for those 
returning, and for their families at home. One 
of the best pieces of work undertaken by the 
Red Cross is the care it has taken of the return- 
ing soldiers, especially the returned wounded. 
This care in many cases will have to be con- 
tinued in one way or another for an indefinite 
time after the soldiers' return, as the Red Cross 
through its Home Service department will assist 
the families of disabled men while they are 
undergoing treatment and training for new 
occupations. For some time following the 
declaration of peace, much in the way of relief 
must still be administered abroad. The Red 
Cross of France, Belgium, and Italy will, for a 
long time, be obliged to care for refugees, to 
promote child welfare, to fight tuberculosis, and 
to assume the many branches of relief conducted 
during the war by the American Red Cross. 
Many of the problems confronting the Euro- 
pean countries in the way of reconstruction, in- 
cluding the feeding and caring for the distressed 
civilian populations, will prove so great as to 
require the cooperation of our country. After 
the signing of the armistice there were in- 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 347 

sistent demands for help from foreign lands. 
In response the American Red Cross sent 
commissions to Greece, Albania, Serbia, Monte- 
negro, Rumania, into the liberated country 
of the Poles and Czecho-Slovaks, and into 
Germany for the relief of prisoners; there 
were also commissions in Siberia, in northern 
Russia, and in Palestine. These commissions 
were made up chiefly of doctors and nurses, and 
were equipped with drugs and dieteti-c foods for 
children and the sick. The work of the Amer- 
ican Red Cross in foreign fields must be con- 
tinued or repeated as long as any obligation of 
brotherhood may require. 

In order the better to accomplish Red Cross 
work of world-wide character on a broad, 
wise, and efficient plan, an International Red 
Cross Committee called a convention of the 
Red Cross organizations of the world to meet at 
Geneva thirty days after the declaration of peace. 
The call was issued at the request of the Red 
Cross of the United States of America, France, 
Great Britain, Italy, and Japan, whose repre- 
sentatives constituted themselves a committee to 
formulate and to propose an extended program 
of Red Cross activities in the interest of human- 
ity. Such activities would foster the study of 
human disease, promote sound measures for 
public health and sanitation, the welfare of c'hil- 



348 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

dren and mothers, the education and training of 
nurses and the care and prevention of tuber- 
culosis, malaria and other chronic or infectious 
diseases, and would provide measures for 
handling problems of world relief in emergen- 
cies, such as fire, famine, and pestilence. It is 
the belief of the committee that the ideals of the 
International Red Cross at Geneva for extend- 
ing relief in time of war can be applied with 
equal vigor and effectiveness in time of peace. 
Although the Red Cross was born for war, its 
influence and work have been so far reaching 
that it would seem to be wise to continue it in 
times of peace — to use the great organization 
to fight tuberculosis, carry on child welfare 
work, battle malaria and social diseases, and to 
instruct the people of the world in sanitation. 

Invitations to join have been sent to Argen- 
tina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chili, 
China, Cuba, Denmark, Greece, Holland, 
India, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Portugal, 
Rumania, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, 
Switzerland, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It is 
expected that eventually the league will include 
all the nations of the world. 

The experiences and experiments and inves- 
tigation of Red Cross workers abroad and at 
home have proved overwhelmingly that all the 
world are kin. Returning to the United States, 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 349 

those who have been directing the foreign work 
say, "We have exactly the same problems with 
us in this country that we found in the civilian 
population of France." The free traveling hos- 
pital with its nurses and doctor, visiting the 
tuberculosis patient who is too ill to go to the 
hospital, and giving him examination and treat- 
ment, is as valuable in the United States as in 
Europe. There are children in the United 
States to whom a traveling shower bath would 
be as much of a godsend as it was to the peasant 
babies of France. "We bath our baby every 
day now," said a proud "little mother" in a 
factory town, as she held up in her arms a clean, 
smiling baby. To "bath" the baby was evi- 
dently viewed as a new accomplishment by the 
American-born child of foreign-born parents, 
who had profited by recent Home Service in- 
struction. "Yes, we have a toothbrush in our 
house," eagerly said another child in reply to 
the social worker's question. "Only one tooth- 
brush?" asked the worker. "Yes, ma'am, 
there's only nine of us in our family." 

Problems of child health, problems of mortal- 
ity, problems of tuberculosis, problems of sani- 
tation, problems of social service, — all these the 
American Red Cross is eager to help solve, co- 
operating with already existing agencies, offi- 
cial or unofficial, if they are conscientiously 
working for the welfare of the nation. 



350 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

One of the few objections offered to the con- 
tinuance of Red Cross work in the line of Home 
Service or civilian relief is the fear of duplica- 
tion or confusion of service. That is, if educa- 
tional, charitable, or social organizations exist in 
a city or town for relief or assistance or inspira- 
tion, the Red Cross Home Service section would 
be likely to be covering the same ground. 

This situation will be carefully guarded 
against in the future as it has been heretofore. 
The theory of the Red Cross is not to enter the 
field of Home Service in any communities where 
the field is already occupied and where there is 
no definite demand from the community for Red 
Cross participation. The Red Cross in such 
communities will always be ready to cooperate 
with existing agencies and aid them in any way 
they may wish. Social agencies have learned to 
exchange information in order to avoid getting 
in one another's way. Home Service must de- 
velop not only skill and patience in cooperating, 
but a genuine enthusiasm for working with oth- 
ers. Some tasks it will surrender to others, some 
it will share with others, and some it will inherit 
from others, but under all three of these sets of 
circumstances it will work with others in that it 
will seek and stand ready to receive all the guid- 
ance and help the community can offer — and 
communities are more willing to give these than 
ever before. 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 351 

The Red Cross ofifers social workers an un- 
paralleled opportunity of joining hands with the 
public in a genuine community of interest. The 
opportunity offered to thousands of Home Serv- 
ice Sections throughout the United States to as- 
sist families with counsel, service, and material 
relief, is almost boundless and carried out in the 
spirit in which the Red Cross proposes to carry 
it out will contribute in an inspiring degree to 
the progress of the people of the United States 
toward better and more healthful living condi- 
tions. 

It is intended that each community will decide 
for itself whether local Red Cross work is to be 
continued or extended along the new lines indi- 
cated. 

''The war developed the striking and impor- 
tant fact that many men and women, some of 
whom had with great success devoted their lives 
entirely to business, came into the Red Cross or- 
ganization at the outset of the war simply that 
they might serve their country, but have realized 
such a satisfaction to themselves in the opportu- 
nity to serve mankind, that they desire to become 
a part of the permanent peace organization of 
the American Red Cross," says Mr. Davison. 

The first consideration in a permanent Red 
Cross program will be for a continuation and 
extension of the Red Cross Nursing Service. 



352 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

This includes demonstrating to communities the 
value of organized effort for the conserving of 
public health, and an efifort to bring within all 
classes of the population courses of instruction 
which shall make households better prepared to 
meet problems of sickness and hygiene. Close 
cooperation between Red Cross visitors and local 
anti-tuberculosis agencies is advised. In com- 
munities that have no special arrangement for 
the care of the tubercular, the Red Cross Divi- 
sion Director of Civilian Relief may be able to 
procure advice as to treatment. 

"For four years," said Miss Delano, not long 
before her death, "wherever the armies of Amer- 
ica and Europe have gone, the Red Cross nurse 
has followed. Now that peace is within sight 
she is still the most-needed woman, and it is her 
privilege to lead in the nation-wide crusade 
against the ignorance and neglect which allow 
epidemics and preventable disease to drain the 
vitality and even the lives of our citizens. To 
every loyal Red Cross member comes the direct 
challenge to help her in this constructive fight 
for freedom." 

Accordingly, campaigns have been planned to 
be conducted by Red Cross nurses who have re- 
turned from duty in Europe and who will go 
throughout this country "preaching the gospel of 
public health." Through these nurses many 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 353 

communities will learn various interesting forms 
of social service which are embraced in the 
duties of a public health nurse. It will b© 
shown, for instance, how this nurse gives hourly 
nursing care to the patients in her district who 
may require it. It will be shown how the nurse 
may conduct inspection of school children, or- 
ganize committees to improve local sanitation 
and general health conditions, instruct mothers 
in the care of babies and small children so that in- 
fant mortality may be reduced to the minimum; 
how she fights epidemics and the increasing men- 
ace of tuberculosis, and in every way possible 
directs the energy and attention of the neighbor- 
hood toward establishing a high order of com- 
munity health. In addition to urging communi- 
ties to employ a public health nurse, the Red 
Cross nurses will endeavor to interest women and 
girls to take the Red Cross courses in Hom.e Hy- 
giene and Care of the Sick and Home Dietetics. 

MODERN HEALTH CRUSADE 

The Junior Red Cross is cooperating with the 
National Tuberculosis Association in a Modern 
Health Crusade, a disease-prevention movement 
which is being developed in the public schools, 
both elementary and high. The following 
health program is advised, which, subject to ap- 
proval or revision by parent or guardian ac- 



354 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

cording to individual circumstances or tempera- 
ment, might be recommended for any boy or 
girl: 

^'I washed my hands before each meal to-day; 
I washed not only my face but my ears and neck, 
and I cleaned my finger nails to-day; I tried to- 
day to keep fingers, pencils, and everything that 
might be unclean out of my mouth and nose; 
I drank a glass of water before each meal and 
before going to bed, and drank no tea, cofifee, 
or other injurious drinks to-day; I brushed my 
teeth thoroughly in the morning and in the even- 
ing to-day; I took lo or more slow, deep breaths 
of fresh air to-day; I played outdoors, or with 
windows open, more than 30 minutes to-day; I 
was in bed 10 hours or more last night and kept 
my windows open; I tried to-day to sit up and 
stand straight, to eat slowly, and to attend to 
toilet and each need of my body at its regular 
time; I tried to-day to keep neat and cheerful 
constantly and to be helpful to others; I took 
a full bath on each day of the week that is 
checked." 

The health crusade movement is not confined 
to America alone; the idea has spread to many 
foreign countries, including China, Korea, 
Canada, Cuba, and France. 

Thoughtful people are asking, "If world 
peace is a desirable thing, why should not the 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 355 

nations cooperate in insuring world health?" 
To this end an Inter-Allied Red Cross Congress 
was held in the spring months of 191 9, to form 
a central bureau ''to stimulate and coordinate the 
voluntary efforts of the peoples of the world 
through their respective Red Cross societies with 
a view to the creation of a world health con- 
science." The program of the congress was en- 
dorsed by distinguished physicians and scientists 
of Engl'and, France, Japan, and Italy, and by fif- 
teen of America's leading health specialists. 

AMERICAN women's HOSPITALS ORGANIZATION 

France and Serbia will be especially in need 
of health work for at least two or three years 
following the war. Several units from women's 
colleges have, upon request, gone to France to 
serve as doctors and nurses and drivers during 
the period of reconstruction. Serbia also sent 
calls for women doctors to come and help fight 
the epidemics and diseases raging during the 
year following the war. When the United 
States entered the war, the American Women's 
Hospitals organized and offered the service of 
its medical women to the government and the 
Red Cross. At first they were denied participa- 
tion in military work in this country because 
the medical reserve corps had neither precedent 
n'or plan for the enlistment of women doctors. 



356 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

Then the association made a census of women 
doctors throughout the country. They enrolled 
2500 women doctors who were ready for active 
duty. They organized the women of the 
various states for civilian and possible military 
service, furnished doctors and technicians to the 
Red Cross, assumed responsibility for the de- 
tails and equipment of the sailing of women, 
obtained three ambulances, and provided and 
sent to Serbia the first motor laboratory made 
in this country. So valuable was this assistance 
to the Red Cross, that a close affiliation was ef- 
fected by the two organizations through which 
eventually the American Women's Hospitals 
realized its ambition to send units abroad both 
for civilian and military work. The work 
planned by the organization was approved by 
the Surgeon General. Women physicians were 
sent to France, with nurses and technicians 
especially trained in courses established by the 
hospitals. 

This "Battalion of Life," as the women 
physicians were called, worked in close coopera- 
tion with the Red Cross, and six of its members 
were decorated by the French government. 
The organization established hospitals and dis- 
pensaries, and had seven units overseas during 
the war. 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 357 

MEDICAL-SOCIAL SERVICE WORKERS 

In connection with hospital work a new line 
of service has developed which may help some 
girls to answer a question most of them have to 
face sooner or later: What am I going to do 
after I leave college? The Red Cross Home 
Service now asks for medical-social service 
workers; it asks young women of intelligence, 
education, energy, and sympathy, to train for 
social service in public health hospitals. 
Doctors do not have the time to give mental, 
moral, industrial, and educational help to their 
patients; yet the hospitals of to-day find that the 
giving of sympathetic advice, encouragement, 
instruction, and friendly help in finding suit- 
able work, helps greatly in conserving human 
life and energy. The Red Cross has been 
asked to place medical-social workers in the 
public health service hospitals in this country, 
where federal employees, disabled soldiers, 
sailors, and marines, army nurses and such men 
as are drawing war risk insurance, are treated 
by the government health department. 

The director of this special department says: 
"The demand for medical-social workers is in- 
creasing, both in government hospitals and 
civilian hospitals. The war has brought home 
to us the facts that social work is an indis- 



358 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

pensable ally to good medical work, and disease 
cannot be fought on a large scale in hospitals, 
dispensaries, schools, or factories without de- 
tailed education in hygiene and without finan- 
cial aid and advice. Again, the problems raised 
by the wounded or maimed soldiers will call for 
the best of team work from the doctor and social 
worker." 

A PROGRAM OF PREPAREDNESS 

The war also brought home the wisdom of a 
greater degree of "preparedness" for both mili- 
tary and civil disasters. A plan has been de- 
vised which is considered to present a most com- 
plete idea of preparation to meet disasters and 
relieve the distress and suffering that arise from 
floods, fires, and kindred things. The plan 
"originating in the office of the Surgeon Gen- 
eral of the Army came to the Red Cross and 
opened the most inspiring possibility for making 
the Red Cross a well-organized and effective 
force to meet sudden demands. This plan was 
built around the fifty base hospital units which 
the Red Cross from all sections of the country 
organized and sent to Europe. The plan pro- 
posed by the Surgeon General's office is, that our 
fifty base hospital units after their return to this 
country be held intact as reserve organizations 
to operate not only for military necessities, if 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 359 

such should arise, but also in cases of civil dis- 
asters. The plan is, that these fifty units would 
be so scattered throughout the country that some 
one of them would always be within a reason- 
able distance of any disaster that might occur. 
The Surgeon General intends, if possible, to 
have the United States Government from its 
own sources establish relief stations at the head- 
quarters of each one of these Hospital Units. 
Wherever there is a Government storehouse, 
complete equipment for, let us say, 500 or 1000 
beds would be stored in such a way that it could 
be immediately used. The organization of the 
hospital would be kept intact as a reserve or- 
ganization and would be expected to be on call 
at any moment for duty. In cases of civil dis- 
asters the Red Cross would operate in exactly 
the same manner that it had always operated be- 
fore. In military cases the army itself would 
operate. With this plan in operation we feel 
sure that the Red Cross will always be prepared 
to meet instantly and in a businesslike way any 
call for its services that may come." ^ 

FIRST AID WORK AND THE JUNIOR RED CROSS 

Before the war First Aid work was one of the 
principal features of the Red Cross. The great 
importance of other all-engrossing events for 

^ Frederick C. Munroe. 



36o GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

four years served to divert attention from this 
special activity. Future plans of the Red Cross 
contemplate an intensive development of First 
Aid, a development that will reach the general 
public, people employed in the industries, and 
school children. 

It is, indeed, upon the school children, upon 
the girls and boys in elementary and in high 
schools, in public and in private schools, that the 
future of the Red Cross really depends. Much 
thought and careful study have been given to 
the part to be played by the Junior Red Cross 
in the permanent peace program, until a plan 
has been inaugurated which sets up a great 
system of social help extending from the home, 
the school, and the community to wherever 
there is need of service. It is the aim of the 
Red Cross to convey the idea of international 
service throughout the entire community, so that 
children everywhere may be educated to dis- 
cover many new things in everyday life as it 
goes on. 

According to the plan the Junior Red Cross 
is to stimulate community activities appropriate 
to the spirit of the Red Cross, to develop inter- 
national understanding and good will, to furnish 
relief to suffering children throughout the 
world, and above all to inculcate ideals and 
habits of service. There are in the United 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 361 

States 23,000,000 pupils between the ages of 
four and twenty years attending school; there 
are 300,000 schools, 190,000 of which are one- 
room rural schools; in almost every school 
system there will be a Red Cross School Com- 
mittee to direct and encourage the pupils in 
Red Cross activities. Each school is a unit, and 
boys and girls become members of their school 
unit. 

Through the Junior Red Cross education is 
to include a new department, the department 
of service. The great war calamity has taught 
•the world that there are higher lessons than 
spelling and algebra, important as they may be, 
and that geography and history may be made 
more real if studied in the light of the higher 
education. This higher training — something 
newer than manual training or domestic science 
— this new branch of education is to teach un- 
selfishness and helpfulness. Girls and boys 
whose hearts have gone out in sympathy and 
whose busy hands have undertaken all sorts of 
new tasks for the sufifering, are ready now to be 
shown how "the things they learn in arithmetic 
and spelling and English are merely forms of 
equipment to help them in performing their real 
function in life, to help others rather than to get 
things for themselves." ^ 

1 John W. Studebaker. 



362 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

"In the future, therefore, education will 
emphasize service. It will accept as one of its 
fundamental responsibilities the development of 
a conception of life, which leaves in the learner 
the understanding that a good life is one which 
uses its best abilities for the purpose of con- 
tributing to the improvement of social condi- 
tions and to the happiness of people in general, 
and not in order that the individual in posses- 
sion of these abilities may use them selfishly and 
with the idea of getting the most out of life only 
for himself." ^ 

If all the girls and boys in the world learn 
to know and love and are ready to serve all the 
other girls and boys in the world, never in the 
generations to come can there be any war. If 
boys and girls grow up with an understanding 
of the situation and circumstances and disposi- 
tion and temperaments and abilities and limita- 
tions of all other boys and girls, and come to 
know one another so well that jealousy and 
hatred and greed which grow out of selfishness 
shall give way to brotherly kindness and love 
and cooperation and interchange of service, the 
men and women of the next generations will be 
united by bonds of understanding and conse- 
quent friendship. It is not easy to quarrel with 
friends. If misunderstandings arise, friends 

1 Frederick C. Munroe. 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 363 

who love each other can "talk things over" and 
reach an agreeable and satisfactory explanation. 
If nations can be persuaded to unite in love and 
friendship, agreeable and satisfactory explana- 
tions can be arrived at without war, even when 
temporary misunderstandings arise. Brothers 
and friends work as earnestly for each other's 
success as for their own. Nations united by 
brotherly love and friendship will be ready to 
combine for the success and development of 
all. "For, after all," says Dr. John H. Finley, 
"the greatest league of nations we can promote 
is "to come through bringing the children of one 
country into conscious and mutually helpful re- 
lationship with the children of other countries." 
Nothing in the whole program of future Red 
Cross activities appeals more generally to the 
sympathy of the people than the effort to re- 
late the work of the Junior membership to the 
relief of suffering children in the war areas. 
"There are thousands of children in all the 
foreign countries involved who have suffered 
physically, mentally, and morally because of the 
depredations which were forced upon them," 
says John W. Studebaker, after close personal 
observation. "There are thousands of children 
left destitute and without clothing and food be- 
cause their parents, one or both, have vanished 
in the great struggle. They need the very best 



364 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

kind of nourishment obtainable in order to build 
them up physically. There are in those coun- 
tries thousands of children, between four- 
teen and sixteen years of age, who are three or 
four years backward in physical development. 
Upon the care of such boys and girls hangs in a 
large measure the future of those countries." 

Meanwhile practical little Janet and Harriet 
and brother John are asking, ''What are we go- 
ing to do?" They have outgrown the notion 
that the life of a girl or boy consists merely in 
going to school and studying books a part of 
each day and spending the remaining hours 
''having a good time." Like their Red Cross 
mothers, they have become so accustomed to do- 
ing something definite for somebody that they 
cannot imagine themselves idle. Neither does 
the Red Cross contemplate their remaining idle. 
Already the 10,000,000 boys and girls who have 
become members of the Junior Red .Cross have 
raised $3,000,000 for Red Cross work and have 
contributed 1,000,000 articles. 

There is still demand for clothing for 
refugees, and Janet and Harriet and every other 
girl may continue to use her "needle, thread, and 
thimble, too." Girls enjoy making the dainty 
articles for layettes, and for these there will con- 
tinue to be great need. In some schools most 
fascinating dolls are being made of cloth, 
stuffed, painted as to face and hands and feet, 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 365 

and dressed, ready to be sent over to bring com- 
fort and joy to the French and Belgian little 
girls who have no dollies to play with. 

Boys have turned out a wonderful variety of 
articles. Now they are working on furniture 
for refugees. French and Belgians coming 
back to their former homes, finding their houses 
burned and all the contents gone or destroyed, 
are living in cellars and dugouts until dwelling 
places can be constructed. A very considerable 
portion of forest land has been ruined, so that 
lumber has become very scarce. The mills and 
machinery also have been destroyed, so that 
nothing can be made even if there were material. 
In this emergency, American schoolboys are 
making tables and folding chairs of simple de- 
sign to ship overseas. 

The Juniors are supporting an orphanage in 
Paris where 10,000 children find a home. They 
have also taken a building on the very edge of 
Mt. Zion, from which is a view of Jerusalem, 
the Mount of Olives, and the hills back of 
Bethlehem. Into this home are taken children 
who have been orphaned by the war, whatever 
their nationality. These children become 
proteges of the Juniors, and all money required 
for the running expenses of the home will be 
provided by the Juniors. 

There are 20,000 destitute children left home- 
less along the Syrian coast, and the Red Cross 



366 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

directors of Junior activities say: ''There is a 
dream that those children may be housed in 
homes where trained 'house mothers' and 'house 
fathers' may bring them up as little families." 
It is hoped that the Juni'ors may have a share 
in this attractive plan, so that those refugee 
children may be able to go to school and then 
"come home to play in their own back gardens 
like normal children." 

Such faith have the Red Cross directors in 
the Juniors, that they have promised that the 
boys and girls of America shall earn and give 
at least a half-million dollars a year for so 
long a period as may be necessary to send relief 
to the suffering children of foreign lands. 
Therefore, Janet and Harriet and John must 
think of all sorts of schemes for earning money 
and waste no time in carrying them out. 

During the summer the Juniors have been 
running "Red Cross farms" in cooperation with 
the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau 
of Education. "War gardens" were so popular 
and so successful as to encourage young people 
to continue their farming pursuits. Corn clubs 
and pig clubs will doubtless remain popular and 
bring in substantial proceeds for the Red Cross 
Junior fund.^ In some places girls are arrang- 

1 The Red Cross pig club contributed $10,000 and six million 
pounds of pork for American troops overseas. 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 367 

ing for Red Cross waffle days, and Red Cross 
ice-cream sales, for garden parties, and tea 
rooms, for cake sales, and pie sales, and home- 
made bread sales. 

"I'll make cake if you'll make bread," said 
Harriet teasingly to Janet, who had proposed 
the idea of a Christmas Red Cross sale for the 
purpose of raising money for their school unit. 
Harriet had been to cooking school. Janet had 
not. Harriet was learning to make very good 
cake, cake that you could really eat. Janet knew 
nothing whatever of the mysteries of bread- 
making. However, she was not to be outdone, 
so she nonchalantly replied, ''All right, how 
many loaves shall we make?" Harriet laughed 
and went home to tell her sisters the joke on 
serious little Janet. "If she's so awfully in- 
terested in the Red Cross, let her see what she 
can do!" said Harriet, with a slight tone of 
superiority based on her cooking-school record. 

Janet went home and hurried to the kitchen 
for a conference with "Black Sarah." "Laws, 
honey, you never could make no bread; you 
don't b'long in the kitchen, honey, you don't; 
leave the bread to Black Sarah; she'll make you 
all you want to eat or to sell." No, Janet shook 
her serious little head until the long flaxen 
braids flew wildly about. No, she must learn 
how to make bread and Black Sarah must teach 



368 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

her. Of course Janet had her way with Black 
Sarah in this case as always, and twice a week 
thereafter Janet "made the bread" under Black 
Sarah's direction. 

Christmas and the Red Cross sale at P. S. No. 
— arrived. "Home-Made Red Cross Cake — 
On Sale Here — Orders Taken" read a gay red 
and white sign over a table at which stood 
Harriet in a costume suggestive of the Red 
Cross uniform. Several other girls similarly 
dressed were with Harriet, helping to sell the 
loaves of cake which their cooking class had 
made. Each loaf when sold was wrapped in 
white paper, tied with a red ribbon, and deco- 
rated with a Red Cross Christmas seal for which 
the customers gladly paid. Business was good 
and the girls took in what seemed to them like 
"a lot of money," and they also received many 
orders for loaves in the future. 

Just across the hall was another table above 
which was another gay red and white sign. 
"Home-Made Red Cross Bread— The Kind 
Your Mammy Used to Make," it read. And 
underneath the sign stood several little persons 
in a costume which was a sort of mixture of 
Red Cross and "Mammy." Janet and her 
group — for she had told several of her friends 
the joke and they had learned bread-making 
at home, too — ^wore white dresses and aprons 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 369 

resembling those of the Red Cross, but instead 
of white veils or tunics on their heads, they wore 
bandannas which Black Sarah herself had tied 
in just the right manner and with just the right 
kind of knot. Of course the costume was 
ridiculous, but it made every one laugh who saw 
it, and that was good for trade! The girls 
did a thriving business, and as they wrapped the 
fragrant white loaves in dainty white paper and 
tied the red ribbon around and added the Christ- 
mas seal, they received "standing orders" from 
Red Cross women who were glad enough to be 
supplied with fresh home-made bread and help 
along the Red Cross at the same time. 

RED CROSS ANIMALS 

The number of animals pressed into Red 
Cross service is astounding. Bulldogs and ter- 
riers carrying Red Cross boxes in which to col- 
lect money became more or less familiar sights 
during the war. Pet dogs that had been trained 
to perform tricks appealed for contributions by 
standing up to ''beg" when passers-by disre- 
garded the boxes. 

Perhaps the strangest sight of all was a 
dromedary draped in a huge Red Cross banner, 
promenading the streets of Shanghai in China 
to advertise a Red Cross fete. The United 
States can boast no dromedaries; but in the state 



370 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

of Oregon a sheep by the name of Bill draped 
in a Red Cross banner has been visiting the 
different chapters, where he was put up at auc- 
tion; one person after another would buy the 
animal and then put him up for sale again to a 
higher bidder. Bill has earned more than 
$5000 for the Red Cross. 

Red Cross pigs roam over western or southern 
acres or in rocky New England pastures, or 
dwell singly in suburban back yards, for Red 
Cross boys to sell. Red Cross hens lay Red 
Cross eggs and hatch Red Cross chickens for 
Red Cross girls to sell and Red Cross women to 
cook. Red Cross horses driven by Red Cross 
girls take summer visitors for picturesque rides 
through the country. Red Cross puppies are 
sold by Red Cross boys, also Red Cross rabbits 
and Red Cross guinea pigs! Perhaps the fun- 
niest of all are the Red Cross kittens — not 
beautiful Persian cats with a pedigree, but plain 
little homeless kittens. There are always kit- 
tens who need homes, and often there are homes 
which need kittens. So some of the most enter- 
prising Juniors have undertaken to bring the 
two together. 

Bob Sewall found a dear little black kitten 
crying pitifully in the back yard of a vacant 
house. Bob loves kittens. He picked pussy 
up, cuddled it (regardless of possible fleas!). 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 371 

tucked it under his overcoat, buttoned it in safe 
and warm, and walked home whistling. No 
one would ever have suspected a secret treasure 
hiding in Bob's manly breast as he entered the 
yard of his home. To the garage at the rear 
went Bob, and through to his own little "shack" 
in the garden. There the kitten was safely in- 
stalled and told to ''keep quiet." Bob went 
quietly into the house and from his own par- 
ticular storehouse in the playroom he brought 
old soft cushions and a blanket Rover used to 
sleep on. Ah, Rover! Bob certainly hoped 
that kitten had kept quiet! If Rover once dis- 
covered a black kitten — or any other kind of a 
kitten — on his premises, well, it would be 
*'Good-by kitten," thought Bob. With a saucer 
of milk added to his other articles, Bob pro- 
ceeded to the "shack" where Mistress Kits, as 
he called his new pet, was safe and soon very 
comfortable, thank you. 

Bob put on his thinking cap. Who was it his 
mother was talking about the other day? Some 
one needed a cat. House full of mice. Oh, 
yes, Mrs. Baxter. Well, he'd wait until he had 
a chance to bathe the kitten and comb its hair 
out nice. It would be a pretty kitten, he was 
sure, if it were clean. Only wished he could 
keep it himself. But Rover, no. Rover never 
would put up with it. Well, he was glad he'd 
thought of Mrs. Baxter. 



372 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

The next day, with his own hair as well as that 
of Mistress Kits brushed "extra good," and his 
hands scrubbed extra clean. Bob presented him- 
self at Mrs. Baxter's home. Mrs. Baxter is al- 
ways gracious and smiling to small boys, so Bob 
very boldly and fearlessly announced to her that 
he had heard she needed a house cat and that he 
"had an extra good kitten for sale." "For sale?" 
repeated Mrs. Baxter. "Why, I don't re- 
member ever having bought a kitten. There 
are always so many kittens to be found for the 
asking." "Oh, yes," said Bob, "but this is an 
extra good kitten. And she's a Red Cross 
kitten, now." "Red Cross kitten?" again re- 
peated Mrs. Baxter; this Bob Sewall certainly 
was a boy of surprises. "Yes, ma'am," con- 
tinued Bob, as he stroked Mistress Kit's sleek 
black fur, "she's earning money for the Red 
Cross. Whatever I get for her goes to the Red 
Cross. Of course I wouldn't want to sell a cat 
and keep the money, that would be just like sell- 
ing a person in slavery. (Mrs. Baxter nodded. 
She certainly does understand boys!) But of 
course I want this kitten to have a good home. 
I wouldn't sell her to everybody, you know. 
And I think if a lady really needs a cat, and 
pays for an extra good one, she'll be good to the 
cat because she's paid for it. So I think I ought 
to sell this kitten. And as I couldn't keep the 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 373 

money, I'm going to give it over to the Red 
Cross school fund." 

Mrs. Baxter smiled and nodded again, evi- 
dently having followed Bob's line of reasoning, 
and agreeing with his conclusions. ''AH right, 
Bob, I think that's a very good plan; good for 
me, good for the kitten, good for you, and good 
for the Red Cross. How much do you ask for 
the kitten?" "Four cents," said Bob. 'Well, 
that's not exorbitant," said Mrs. Baxter, still 
smiling; "I'll make it a nickel if you don't mind, 
then you won't have to bother with change. 
Good-by." And that was the beginning of the 
Red Cross sale of Red Cross cats. 

THE GREAT WORK AHEAD 

The element of uncertainty — or rather of the 
unexpected — ^which enters so largely into the 
Red Cross is possibly one reason for its fascina- 
tion. One never can tell what girls or boys or 
men or women may think of next as a way of aid- 
ing the Red Cross either by gifts of money or by 
service. And one never can tell what the di- 
rectors of the various departments of the Red 
Cross may suggest or undertake, because one can 
never tell just what needs will arise or cease. 
Ever bearing in mind the emergency character 
of the organization, one cannot expect very 
definite prophecies or programs. "Wind and 



374 GIRLS' BOOK OF THE RED CROSS 

weather permitting" is a condition which well 
might be attached to Red Cross plans. 

However, the Red Cross League with head- 
quarters in one of the oldest and most historic 
buildings of Geneva, with Major-General Sir 
David Henderson at the head, and representa- 
tives of the French, Italian, and Japanese na- 
tions as well as American men of prominence 
in attendance, and doubtless many other nations 
coming in as time passes, has under consider- 
ation such vast plans as to indicate that the work 
lying ahead of the Red Cross will prove "funda- 
mentally more important than even the work 
which lies behind." 

"Patriotic fervor may have subsided," says 
J. Byron Deacon, in speaking of the Red Cross 
Peace Program; "but I ask you, may there not 
have grown out of patriotism a deeper, broader 
fellowship, a clearer, sharper service-urge 
among our people? If so, and I have faith to 
believe it is so, for myself I should be well con- 
tent to accept in lieu of patriotic ardor the spirit 
of fellowship and the will to serve as the twin 
engines to drive our work." 

So now the American Red Cross receives the 
assurance from its directors that it is to go for- 
ward on a great scale — not alone for purposes 
of relief in war but as an agency of peace and 
permanent human service. Dr. Livingston 



THE FUTURE OF THE RED CROSS 375 

Farrand, who became head of the American 
Red Cross when the War Council was dissolved, 
has promised that its peace activities will sur- 
pass its achievements in war. 

For those individuals who because of great 
age or great youth, or because of physical or 
other disability, are not privileged to enter into 
big or active service, many times has been quoted 
the song of "Pippa," to reconcile those whose 
years or strength do not match their ambition 
and desire to the performance of more humble 
tasks for the one great end: 

"All service ranks the same with God, 
There is no last nor first:" 

Nowhere is this truer than in Red Cross 
service. 

The words of Clara Barton, the woman who 
brought the Red Cross to America, are as true 
to-day as when she spoke them many years ago: 
"My dear, we all tumble over opportunities for 
being brave and doing good at every step we 
take. Life is just made of such opportunities. 
Not nearly all the sick and crippled are on the 
battlefield, nor is all the danger there either." 



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